With a career in film and TV spanning more than 60 years, there’s no mistaking that the late Donald Sutherland was a true acting legend.
Over the decades, the Canadian star appeared in everything from the classic The Dirty Dozen, the war comedy M*A*S*H and the unsettling domestic drama Don’t Look Now to the glossy Dirty Sexy Money and the epic Hunger Games series.
However, to many of us, he’ll always be Springfield historian Hollis Hurlbut.
Donald made a voice appearance in The Simpsons’ seventh season back in 1996, playing the leader of Springfield’s historical society in the episode Lisa The Iconoclast.
In the episode, Donald’s character befriends Lisa as she tries to work on a school project about the town’s founder Jebediah Springfield. However, when she discovers some uncomfortable historical truths, Hollis goes to extreme lengths to try and keep them hidden.
The Simpsons’ writing team said they came up with the character of Hollis with Donald in mind to voice him, with the award-winning actor even ad libbing one memorable line that made it into the final episode.
After the news of his death was confirmed on Thursday, many Simpsons fans took a moment to remember Donald’s performance in the much-loved episode…
Interestingly, in 1975, Donald played a character named Homer Simpson in the historical satire The Day Of The Locust.
His son Kiefer Sutherland would go on to appear in three different episodes of The Simpsons, including one appearance as his 24 character Jack Bauer.
Lisa The Iconoclast is available to stream now on Disney+.