Screen legendDonald Sutherland battled deadly breathing difficulties for years and was even forced to carry an oxygen tank and tube to help him, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Sutherland, who it was announced Thursday had died aged 88, was infamously a four-pack-a-day smoker.
Sources told RadarOnline.com the veteran Canadian actor was suffering from an ongoing and obstructive lung condition, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.
“It was a debilitating and incurable lung illness, most commonly caused due to smoking,” the insider said.
Sutherland, whose career spanned more than six decades and included the role of President Snow in The Hunger Games franchise, often was forced to use breathing equipment while in public due to his pesky cigarette habit in the past.
“If he didn’t have oxygen on standby, he would have it on constant standby, almost as if he was always at high altitude,” the source added.
COPD limits air intake so severely that most of those who suffer with its debilitating symptoms become dependent on oxygen tanks for their survival.
COPD can also cause a severe respiratory crisis and sufferers face acute respiratory failure if untreated.
Another source close to the actor — whose son is Designated Survivor star Kiefer Sutherland — said Sutherland puffed four packs a day “back in the ’60s and ’70s” and added that it “wouldn’t be surprising at all to find out that he had COPD, even though he quit smoking cold turkey decades ago.”
After he stopped puffing, Sutherland became a fanatic about anyone smoking near him — and kept cigarette users at least 100 yards away on movie sets, the source said.
As we previously reported, Kiefer announced his father’s death, saying: "With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away. I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film."
Donald had an impressive list of credits including The Dirty Dozen, M A*S*H, the thriller Klute as well as classic Animal House, and the hit film Pride & Prejudice.*
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"Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly," Kiefer recalled in his tribute, celebrating the legacy his beloved father left behind. "He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that. A life well lived."