Donald Sutherland played oil tycoon J. Paul Getty in the FX drama series ‘Trust,‘ which follows the wealthy Getty family, starting with the infamous 1973 kidnapping of his grandson, John Paul Getty III. But Sutherland knew firsthand what it meant to be a kidnapping target, long before he ever played one on screen.
In the mid-1970s, Sutherland spent extended stretches in Italy filming two major projects: Bernardo Bertolucci’s ‘1900‘ and Federico Fellini’s ‘Casanova.’ Both required him to be on location for months. While filming in Italy sounded glamorous, the country was living through what later became known as the “Years of Lead,” a period marked by political terrorism and organized crime. Sutherland’s presence there came with a grim requirement: a kidnap-and-ransom insurance policy.
Donald Sutherland Arrived During Italy’s Kidnapping Epidemic
Kidnapping had become something close to an industry in Italy during the 1970s, with two major groups reigning supreme. Far-left militant groups like the Red Brigades targeted wealthy businessmen, politicians, and public figures to fund their campaigns and make political statements.
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Organized crime syndicates, especially the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, ran the same playbook for profit, treating abductions of the rich and famous as a reliable way to extract huge payouts. The crisis hit its peak in 1973.
Kidnappers snatched sixteen-year-old John Paul Getty III, grandson of the richest man in the world, off the streets of Rome. They held him for months until his grandfather paid a $2.9 million ransom. The case became the clearest sign of how far the threat reached.
It set the tone for how Italy treated foreign celebrities for years afterward. By the time Sutherland arrived to shoot ‘1900’ just a couple of years later, the danger wasn’t theoretical. Studios and insurers knew exactly what could happen to a high-profile actor on location, and they weren’t willing to gamble on it.
Sutherland Paid The Price Of Being A Star
Sutherland was considered a high-value target the moment he landed in Italy. Studios and underwriters worried that extremists or opportunists tied to organized crime could grab him and demand a massive ransom.
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To guard against that and the financial disaster halted production would cause, the studio secured a specialized kidnap-and-ransom policy for him. These policies covered more than just a ransom payout and reimbursed the cost of crisis negotiators.
They also protected the production from going bankrupt if its lead actor disappeared mid-shoot. Sutherland later described one strange condition tied to his coverage while filming ‘Casanova’ for Fellini. At times, it required him to wear a white cloth bag over his head as part of the insurance terms.
“And the other requirement was that they not tell me that they had insurance,” Sutherland said. “I wish they had. I could have gone with Getty.” He finished both Italian shoots without any sinister incident, but the threat behind that policy was never just a formality.
A Strange Kind Of Full Circle
Decades later, Sutherland’s own history with kidnapping insurance folded back into his career in a way few actors could match. In 2018, he starred in ‘Trust,’ the FX series built entirely around the 1973 Getty kidnapping that had helped define the danger he lived with in Italy years earlier.
Sutherland played J. Paul Getty Sr., the billionaire patriarch known for his refusal to pay his grandson’s ransom until the kidnappers mailed him the boy’s severed ear.
It’s a role that put Sutherland inside the exact story that once made him a target worth insuring, decades after he’d worn a bag over his head to satisfy an insurance clause of his own.
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