The Dirty Dozen

In the "making of" documentary for The Dirty Dozen (1967) Special Edition DVD, Sutherland says the was one of the "last dozen", meaning he was not going to have many lines. However when they were preparing to film the scene where Major Reisman (Lee Marvin) had to convince Colonel Breed (Robert Ryan) that a general was among them, it was supposed to be Posey (Clint Walker). However, Walker refused to do the scene so director Robert Aldrich picked Sutherland to do the scene. After that, Sutherland's role was expanded rather more. The Dirty Dozen (1967) is credited with helping Sutherland get more attention from filmmakers, thus launching his career. According to Sutherland, sometime later, Aldrich asked him to be in another movie but Sutherland declined. He says in the documentary that turning down Aldrich was one of his greatest regrets as an actor as he felt he owed Aldrich for helping to launch his career.