Kiefer Sutherland

Kiefer Sutherland is a Canadian-American actor and producer whose four-decade career has produced multiple defining American film and TV roles — particularly his nine-season run as counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer on Fox's 24 (2001–2010, plus the 2014 limited-series revival 24: Live Another Day). He was born Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland on December 21, 1966, in Paddington, London, England, into a third-generation North American acting family. His father is Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, and his mother is Canadian actress Shirley Douglas. The family relocated to Toronto when Kiefer was four following his parents' 1971 separation.

His breakthrough came at age 17 with his 1984 first feature-film appearance in Paul Almond's Max Dugan Returns. His 1986 lead role as switchblade-wielding teenage gang leader Ace Merrill in Rob Reiner's Stand by Me (the Stephen King-novella adaptation) launched his late-1980s American film public profile. The 1986–1991 American film peak produced multiple defining films — particularly The Lost Boys (1987, the Joel Schumacher vampire film), Young Guns (1988, opposite Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen), Flatliners (1990, opposite Julia Roberts), A Few Good Men (1992, opposite Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson), and The Three Musketeers (1993).

His November 6, 2001 first appearance as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer on Fox's real-time-format thriller TV series 24 — the post-September-11-2001 American counter-terrorism drama developed by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran — launched his 2000s American TV public profile. 24 ran for 192 episodes across eight seasons (2001–2010) and produced his 2006 Primetime Emmy Award for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

His subsequent TV career has produced his 2014–2015 limited-series revival 24: Live Another Day, his 2016–2019 lead role as the Designated Survivor President Tom Kirkman on ABC's political drama TV series Designated Survivor, and his 2022 limited-series role on Paramount+ as detective John Sutter on Rabbit Hole. He married Camelia Kath in 1987 (divorced 1990); he married Kelly Winn in 1996 (divorced 2008); he married Cindy Vela in 2024.

His name Kiefer derives from the Old German place-name meaning "pine tree." Kiefer has been a rare but enduring American boys' name across the late 20th century.