Kiefer Sutherland's Real Name: Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland

Quick answer: Kiefer Sutherland's full birth name is Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland. He was born on December 21, 1966, at St. Mary's Hospital in London. Kiefer is his real first name, followed by five middle names. The son of actors Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas, he is best known as Jack Bauer on 24 (Library of Congress; Britannica).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress name authority files him as "Sutherland, Kiefer, 1966-." One citation reads "born Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland, December 21, 1966, London, England." Another gives his birthplace as St. Mary's Hospital, London. It describes him as a Canadian and British citizen, the son of actors Donald and Shirley Sutherland, who was raised by his mother in Canada. One older LOC heading uses 1967 as his birth year, but the other LOC citations and Britannica give 1966.

Britannica says that after his parents divorced in 1971, he moved to Canada with his mother and his twin sister. He left school at 15 to pursue acting.

Career highlights

Sutherland made his big-screen debut alongside his father in Max Dugan Returns (1983). The next year The Bay Boy earned him a Genie Award nomination for best actor. His turn as a bully in Stand by Me (1986) drew wide attention, and Britannica says villains became a specialty. He starred in The Lost Boys (1987), Young Guns (1988), and Flatliners (1990). He also appeared in A Few Good Men (1992), Freeway (1996), and A Time to Kill (1996). He directed the TV movie Last Night (1993) and the feature Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997). In 1996 he performed onstage with his mother in The Glass Menagerie.

After a break from acting to compete in rodeos, he returned in 2001 as counterterrorist agent Jack Bauer on Fox's 24. Each season of the real-time series covered a single day, and it was a critical and commercial success. Britannica says the show ran from 2001 to 2010, with a 2014 revival. Sutherland won a Golden Globe for the role in 2002.

Later work includes Lars von Trier's Melancholia (2011), the Hulu web series The Confession (2011) opposite John Hurt, and the series Touch (2012–13). He played a cabinet member who unexpectedly becomes president on Designated Survivor (2016–19) and starred in the corporate espionage series Rabbit Hole (2023).

Name notes for searchers

Sutherland's long string of middle names is documented in library records; he professionally uses only Kiefer Sutherland. His surname comes from his father, Donald Sutherland.