TORONTO (CelebrityAccess) – Canadian activist and veteran actress, Shirley Douglas, has died at the age of 86.
Douglas, who was the mother of actor Kiefer Sutherland and daughter of Canada medicare founder Tommy Douglas, passed Sunday (April 5) from complications surrounding pneumonia, which was unrelated to COVID-19.
“My mother was an extraordinary woman who led an extraordinary life,” said Sutherland on Twitter. “Sadly she had been battling for her health for quite some time and we, as a family, knew this day was coming.”
Over the course of her more than 50 plus year career, Douglas worked with leading directors including Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg, and others.
As an activist, she supported numerous causes throughout her life, including the civil rights movement, the Black Panthers, and the fight to save Canada’s public health care. She was also a co-founder of the first Canadian chapter of the Performing Artists for Nuclear Disarmament.
In 1965, Douglas married Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, with whom she had two children – twins Rachel, a production manager, and Kiefer. They later divorced. She also had another son, Thomas, from a previous marriage.
Douglas was a Gemini Award winner, an Officer of the Order of Canada, and an inductee into Canada’s Walk of Fame.
