Kiefer Sutherland shares a heartfelt tribute to his mom, Shirley Douglas

It wasn’t a great weekend for Kiefer Sutherland. The guy who made Jack Bauer famous took to social media to share some sad news on April 5, when he revealed that his mother, Canadian icon Shirley Douglas, had passed away. Douglas had just turned 86 years old three days earlier, and although her declining health left her family expecting this for a while now, that probably didn’t make it any easier for Sutherland to announce her passing in his heartfelt tribute.“Early this morning my mother, Shirley Douglas, passed away due to complications surrounding pneumonia (not related to COVID19),” he wrote. “My mother was an extraordinary woman who led an extraordinary life. Sadly she had been battling for her health for quite some time and we, as a family, knew this day was coming. To any families who have lost loved ones unexpectedly to the Coronavirus, my heart breaks for you. Please stay safe.”Extraordinary seems accurate—not only was Douglas an actress (she starred in Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita and David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers), but she was also a well-known political activist. Which, considering her father was Tommy Douglas, aka the guy who is credited as getting free health care started in Canada, makes total sense. Over the years she fought for several causes like civil rights, saving health care, and stopping the Vietnam War. She was also arrested in 1969 on conspiracy charges of possessing unregistered explosives after starting a fundraising group called Friends of the Black Panthers, but those charges were eventually dropped and she was exonerated.Oh, and she was also an Officer of the Order of Canada, she had a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, and she held an honorary doctor of fine arts degree from the University of Regina. Extraordinary indeed.Douglas was married to another Canadian legend, Donald Sutherland, from 1966 to 1970. Before their divorce they had Kiefer and his twin sister, Rachel. “Do what you want. That was the single most important thing I learned from my parents, because they did. My dad, as an actor, went where the work was, my mother was an actress and a political activist,” Kiefer said in a 2018 interview. “The choices they made were maybe not the best choices as a parent but they were the best for their lives. So by the time I was 15 and I wanted to leave school and become an actor I had no guilt and both of them, to their credit, let me.”Naturally many of Sutherland’s famous friends, and even more politicians, took to Twitter to send their well wishes following his announcement. Olivia Chow (politician and wife of late NDP leader Jack Layton), former Minister of Energy Marg McCuaig-Boyd, Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley, CTU director Bill Buchanan himself James Paige Morrison, and many others all passed along their regards.

In memory of your mother. pic.twitter.com/UiN5kKRpWV

— Olivia Chow (@oliviachow) April 6, 2020

Before making the announcement of his mother’s passing, Sutherland had been pretty quiet on social media — although he did take to Twitter on March 28 to reveal he would cut his own hair, since “given the timeframe of this awful virus no one will see my haircut” anyway. With the practise of social distancing in full effect, it’s unclear whether Sutherland and his family will hold a funeral service or celebration of life. But until then, we can expect the tributes to continue pouring in online.[video_embed id='1934571']RELATED: Remembering Shirley Douglas[/video_embed]