“I see it ten times a day,” Rentmeester says. But the logo is more a source of irritation than pride, because he believes he was never properly compensated. He sued Nike in a case that in 2018 went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The courts ultimately sided with Nike. So now Rentmeester is taking his argument to the public in a new documentary called Jumpman. The film premieres on June 7 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

The film recounts in fascinating detail Rentmeester’s fateful 1984 photo shoot with Jordan, which took place on a hillside on the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill. Because Rentmeester still has all the alternate takes with Jordan and also test images he shot with an assistant playing the role of the basketball star, the documentary is able to demonstrate the aesthetic and technical reasons behind Rentmeester’s history-making request to Jordan. Rentmeester asked him to do a ballet leap, going straight up into the air with his legs split, rather than a conventional basketball jump that creates momentum toward the hoop. Rentmeester’s unusual request resulted in a signature image for a man who would go on to become the most famous athlete on the planet.

Soon after that shoot Jordan would begin his NBA journey as a player for the Chicago Bulls, and also as a spokesperson for Nike. As the documentary shows, making use of original documents from back then, Rentmeester received a request from Nike for two slides from that hillside shoot, to use for presentations only, not reproduction. Nike paid Rentmeester $150 for sending the images out on loan. Then, about a month later, Rentmeester traveled to Chicago and was stunned to see an image of Jordan on a billboard, replicating the ballet jump, except in red-and-black Nike gear. “It was like I was hit in the stomach,” he says.

Rentmeester protested to Nike. They responded by offering him $15,000 to use the image for two years, plus the promise to employ him on future advertising shoots, Rentmeester says. He took the deal. At this point in his career he was working as a freelancer, had young children, and was not positioned for a long legal battle with a deep-pocketed corporation. The promised work, he says, never materialized.

Rentmeester only headed back to court in 2014, when he found a lawyer who took on the case pro bono. But a district court ruled against Rentmeester, stating that a pose only received thin protection, and that small differences such as the turn of Jordan’s hand or the angle of his foot were enough to make Nike’s image distinct from the original.

Rentmeester sees that decision as not only an injustice against him but as an insult to the art of photography in general. “I didn’t take the picture. I made the picture,” he says in the documentary. “Obviously they did not make a picture. They took a picture.”

It further irked Rentmeester that his case never came before a jury. He believes a panel of regular people would recognize the truth of what happened.

Jumpman, with a running time of a brisk 22 minutes, was directed by Tom Dey, who has helmed such feature films as Failure to Launch and Shanghai Noon, and who knew this story intimately because he is married to Rentmeester’s daughter Coliena, who is also a photographer. 

“Because he is my father-in-law, I’ve lived through this saga at arm’s length over the last two decades,” Dey says. “I could tell that it was exhausting him.”  Forty years after that initial photo shoot with Michael Jordan, Dey believed it was time that Rentmeester get credit for his work: “I thought, `If we make a film about this, he can address the court of public opinion, and the public can make up their own minds.”

From June 6 to 11 a related photography exhibit, which covers the Jordan shoot and the rest of Co Rentmeester’s illustrious career, will run in a gallery at 127 Greene Street in New York City.

Co Rentmeester photographed Michael Jordan in Chapel HIll, N.C. for a story on stars of the 1984 Olympics; that shoot would produce the famous Jumpman pose.

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

A still of photographer Co Rentmeester from the 2024 documentary “Jumpman.”

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

A still from the 2024 documentary “Jumpman.”

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

In 1984 Michael Jordan jumped straight up while doing a ballet split on a hillside in Chapel Hill, N.C., with a toy basket staged cannily in front of him, in 1984; the image led to a lawsuit between its photographer, Co Rentmeester, and NIke over the company’s “jumpman” logo.

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

The post The Amazing Story Behind “Jumpman” appeared first on LIFE.

The use of paratroopers was part of the incremental escalation that defined the war in Vietnam, and they were deployed in service of America’s biggest military operation to that point. But what makes this set of Rentmeester’s photos stand out is the intimacy and intensity of his paratrooper portraits, which resonate beyond their moment in history.

The operation was important enough that it made the cover of LIFE’s March 10, 1967 issue, with a photo of a silhouetted paratrooper leaping from the plane and the headline “Battle Jump: New Tactics Step Up the War.” Rentmeester’s photos capture the daring of the Second Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment as soldiers descended on Vietnam’s dried-up rice paddies during Operation Junction City. The operation was multidivisional assault on the suspected location of the enemy headquarters.

The story’s opening spread featured close-up photos of two soldiers on their way to the jump: one who had never done anything like this before and one who who knew the routine all too well. Baby-faced 19-year-old Pfc. Helmut Schmuck sat wide-eyed on the plane as he anticipated making his first combat jump ever. Then there was Sergeant First Class Leon Hostak, who had been a paratrooper during the Korean War and now was a leader of the young charges. According to LIFE’s story, when it came time to jump, Hostak “was practically throwing his troopers out of the plane.”

The story’s text, by Don Moser, described the mix of excitement and dread that preceded the jump:

Pfc. William D. Kuhl was bubbling with the excitement of it all. “My mother is going to be prouder of me than I am of myself,” he was saying. “Then he laughed and started to sing the paratroopers’ song. “Gory, gory, what a helluva way to die,” he bellowed, but the rest just got quiet and curled up inside themselves.

All 800 paratroopers landed safely (including Kuhl, who snapped a photo on the way down for LIFE), despite encountering some initial sniper fire. But the mission itself was an anticlimax. The troops searched for a week before making major contact with enemy soldiers and “mostly pursued elusive shadows through the jungle,” LIFE reported. Both sides suffered casualties, and the soldiers did not find the headquarters they sought.

The last words of the story, attributed to an unnamed and frustrated planner of the mission, were “It’s a damned rough game.”

U.S. paratroopers in Vietnam, on their way to their first jump of the war, 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Pfc. Helmut Schmuck, 19. a paratrooper of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, prepared for his first jump in combat, Vietnam, 1967.

Leon Hostak, a Sergeant First Class who had served as a paratrooper in 1951 during the Korean War, was back in action in Vietnam, 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The back of the helmet of American helicopter pilot John Rion had a sticker that depicted the ‘Peanuts’ comicstrip character Snoopy, Vietnam, 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In the first US combat parachute assault since the Korean War. paratroopers of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade descended on South Vietnam, February 22, 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An American paratrooper of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, jumped out of a C-130 plane and into a war zone in South Vietnam, February 22, 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In the first US combat parachute assault since the Korean War. paratroopers of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade descend on jSouth Vietnam, February 22, 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A photo taken by Pfc. Wiliam Kuhl of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade during the first paratrooper jump of the Vietnam War, February 22, 1967.

Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paratroopers of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, on a mission in Vietnam, 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division set up a tarp next to a howitzer for Operation Junction City during the Vietnam war, February 1967. A CH-47 Chinook helicopter is in flight

.Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Second Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, Vietnam, 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Second Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, Vietnam, 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paratroopers of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, wade through a stream in South Vietnam, February 22, 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

US soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry, 1st Division, aimed an M60 machine gun out of a foxhole during Operation Junction City in the Vietnam war, February 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From front left: Specialist 4th class Raymond Hill, team leader Sergeant Reed Cundiff, and Specialist 4th class Manuel Moya, Vietnam, 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A reconnaissance patrol In Vietnam during Operation Junction City, 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Manuel Moya (left) and Reed Cundiff of a U.S. Army Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol of the 173rd Airborne, South Vietnam, February 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of Manuel Moya of a US Army Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) of the 173rd Airborne as he sat, in camouflage, in a helicopter, Vietnam, February 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Paratroopers in Vietnam Make a Historic Leap appeared first on LIFE.

Rentmeester was born in Amsterdam, and as a rower he represented the Dutch in double scull at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. He then came to America and eventually enrolled as a student at the ArtCenter School of Design in Los Angeles. While taking classes he connected with the Time Inc. bureau there, accepting whatever assignments they had, because at $125 a pop, the photography gigs paid better than his previous side job, pumping gas for a dollar an hour.

He had been shooting mostly for Time magazine, usually basic portraits, but also some for LIFE when he got the call to help out with a big breaking news story: the Watts riots of 1965, which stemmed from a drunken driving arrest that grew violent and lasted for five days. Rentmeester rushed to the scene.

“As I drove on Imperial Avenue, the whole thing was breaking right in front of me,” he recalled recently. “Stores were going up in flames, looting was going on.” He would jump out of his car to shoot a few frames and then duck back in and drive away before the crowd could zero in on him. “That’s how I worked for 48 hours,” he says.

His Watts photos landed on the cover of LIFE, and he began shooting more for the magazine. Then LIFE came to him with a proposition: going to Vietnam for three months to document the war. Rentmeester said yes, and within 48 hours of arrival in Vietnam, he went from getting set up with credentials and a uniform to being thrown into battle. Suddenly he was in foxholes with soldiers, machine guns were firing, and he could smell the dead bodies around him. “I will never forget the shock of going from the reality of life on the outside to suddenly being in the middle of death,” he says.

But after his three months were up, he came back for more. In 1967 he took a photo which was named Photo of the Year by the World Press Organization. He was working on a story about how American tanks were having a hard time navigating the marshy Vietnamese landscape, and during one bogdown he went inside a tank with a gunner and snapped a picture that captured life inside: a glimmer of light coming through the tank’s optical aiming device and illuminating the eye of a gunner covered in sweat and grease. “To get down to the bottom of the tank, with no room to crawl around and no light, it was really very tricky,” Rentmeester says. The soldier in the photo, PFC Kerry Nelson, would in subsequent battles go on to win a silver star for a display of bravery that included continuing to fight after sustaining a wound in which he lost his sight. Years later Rentmeester spoke to Nelson’s wife, who said that he never knew about the acclaim the photo of him had achieved.

In May 1968 Rentmeester sustained his own Vietnam battle wound. He was near the airport in Saigon when he was caught in a firefight. He jumped in a three-foot-deep gully to protect himself but a bullet hit him in his left hand and shattered the lens of his camera.

Rentmeester, who is ambidextrous, returned to the United States for hand surgery. After that he took his camera out into less violent terrains, including several assignments photographing wildlife. One such assignment led to one of the more beloved LIFE covers.

He went to Japan to photograph a study being done of snow monkeys on Mt. Shiga, of interest not just for their rarity and appearance but for their intensely structured societies. The snow monkeys’ rituals included bathing together in the hot springs. “I just spend four and five days waiting for the snow monkeys to come out of mountains,” he says, and his patience was rewarded as the monkeys eased themselves into the hot springs, creating a memorable cover shot.

The 1972 Olympics led to more memorable photos—some of athletes, and another of a hideous tragedy. In the leadup to the ’72 games he captured swimmer Mark Spitz in the water with what he called a “dragging shutter” which made it seem as if the water was in motion while Spitz’s head was in perfect focus. The innovative shot was named the World Press sports photo of the year.

Then at the Olympics in Munich, Rentmeester was in his rental car, driving to the athlete’s village when he heard a radio report—In German, which the Dutch native understood well enough—that Israeli athletes had been taken hostage. After being turned away from the village itself, Rentmeester found a spot of a hillside in which he had a narrow view of the Israeli compound 300 meters away. From that vantage point he snapped photos that showed members of the Black September group that was staging the assault “I set up there with a long lens all by myself for about a half hour with a tripod trying to pick out little things,” he recalls. “Then twenty other photographers were in the same spot. You couldn’t go anywhere else.”

During the run-up to another Olympics, Rentmeester shot what is arguably the most seen photo of his career—and arguably is the all-too-correct word here, because Rentmeester has gone to the Supreme Court over the photo, which inspired the “jumpman” logo for Nike’s Michael Jordan clothing brand.

The year was 1984, and Rentmeester went to Chapel Hill, N.C., to photograph basketball star Michael Jordan. He set up on a hillside that would give him a clean skyline, and while he was waiting for Jordan to appear, Rentmeester’s team mowed the hillside and bought a portable basketball hoop from a toy store that they set up on the hill. When Jordan arrived on the set, Rentmeester asked Jordan to jump straight up while holding a basketball aloft. And instead doing a regular basketball jump, Rentmeester asked Jordan to splay his legs in the manner of a ballet dancer. With the way the hoop had been positioned, it appeared as if Jordan was sailing in for a gravity-defying dunk. “It worked beautifully,” Rentmeester says.

The image ran across two pages in LIFE. But then six months later Rentmeester was in a meeting in Chicago with a corporate client and saw an image of Jordan doing the same jump on a Nike billboard, except that this time Jordan, who played for the Bulls, appeared to be sailing across a Chicago skyline. Nike then began to use a silhouette of the pose as the “jumpman” logo.

Rentmeester, who was a freelancer at that point, eventually sued Nike for appropriating his image—they had paid his $150 for a research copy, but they did not have permission for the public usage, he says. Nike argued that the logo was made from a version of the picture they staged themselves. You can read about the years-long legal battle here, but the end result is that the judges sided with Nike, despite the undeniable similarities with the pose that Rentmeester conceived. Rentmeester says, “To this day, I  feel I was entitled to have my case heard in front of a jury.”

This collection of Rentmeester’s work shows the broad scope of the subject matters he tackled, giving a feel of what it was like to be a LIFE photographer—shooting the Amazin’ 1969 Mets baseball team one day, actor Donald Sutherland and his family, including young Kiefer the next, maybe popping in on the wedding of the president’s daughter. Look here, and there’s only one verdict to be reached, which is this this is an amazing body of work.

This man was driven from his home during the 1965 Watts riots, which lasted five days. The photo made the cover of LIFE’s issue of August 27, 1965.

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

Firemen attempted to deal with one of the many fires set during the 1965 Watts riots, which lasted five days.

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

PFC Kerry Nelson, his eye illuminated by light coming through his aiming sight, squinted to line up his 90-mm cannon; the photo was named 1967’s World Press photo of the year.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

American tanks often struggled to move through the swampy terrain in Vietnam, 1967.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

American B-52 dropped a payload of bombs onto Viet Cong positions during the Vietnam War, 1968.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Soldiers of the Second Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade saluted 98 pairs of boots arranged to commemorate each man who died in the fighting in and around Hill 875; the monthlong battle of Dak To cost 280 Americans and 1,641 North Vietnamese their lives.

Co Rentmeester/Life PIctures/Shutterstock

Soldiers of the Second Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade prepared to honor fallen comrades represented by 98 pairs of boots arranged to commemorate each man who died in the fighting in and around Hill 875; the monthlong battle of Dak To cost 280 Americans and 1,641 North Vietnamese their lives.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

LIFE photographer Co Rentmeester near the DMZ in Vietnam.

Life Pictures/Shutterstock

LIFE photographer Co Rentmeester, 1968.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

An orangutan swinging from a vine in the jungles of North Borneo, 1968.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A group of Japanese macaques sat in hot spring in the Shiga mountains in Japan, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Snow monkeys n a tree branch in the Shiga mountains, Japan, 1969

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A Japanese macaque or snow monkey sat in a hot spring in the Shiga mountains during a snowfall, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

January 30, 1970 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Co Rentmeester

Polar bears in Hudson Bay, Canada, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/1969

Tom Seaver dominated for the Miracle Mets in 1969, going 25-7 and winning the first of his three Cy Young awards.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Tom Seaver won 25 games, the most in the majors, as the leader of the Miracle Mets in 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Fans cheered on the 1969 Mets as the team drove toward its first World Series title.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

O’Hare Airport, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland and his son, Kiefer, in New York, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

California, 1970.

Co Rentmeester / LIFE Picture Collection via Shutterstock

Near Malibu, California, 1970.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

California, 1970.

Co Rentmeester / LIFE Picture Collection via Shutterstock

In the enema room of the Bronx VA hospital, spinal injury patients waited up to four hours to be treated by a single aide, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

President Richard Nixon escorted his daughter Tricia down the aisle at her wedding to Nixon aide Edward Cox in the Rose Garden of the White House, Washington DC, June 12, 1971.

Co Rentmeester/LIfe Pictures/Shutterstock

US swimmer Mark Spitz trained for 1972 Munich Olympics.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/1970

Al Feuerbach, 1972 U.S. Olympian.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

US wrestler eventual gold medal winner Wayne Wells (top) overpowered West German Adolf Seger in freestyle welterweight elimination match at the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

US swimmer Mark Spitz held a big lead in the 200-meter butterfly at the 1972 Olympics; he set a world record in the event while winning one of his seven gold medals at the Games.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A stocking-masked Black September terrorist looked out from balcony in the Olympic village where his group was holding nine Israeli athletes hostage after killing two others; all the Israeli athletes died in the incident, along with five of the eight hostage takers and a West German police officer.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/1972

A German policeman leaned against a wall outside an apartment where nine Israeli hostages were held in the Olympic village in Munich, September 1972.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

In 1984 Michael Jordan jumped straight up while doing a ballet split on a hillside in Chapel Hill, N.C., with a toy basket staged cannily in front of him, in 1984; the image led to a lawsuit between its photographer, Co Rentmeester, and NIke over the company’s “jumpman” logo.

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

The post What Meets the Eye: The Photography of Co Rentmeester appeared first on LIFE.

The ’69 Mets themselves maintain a special place in baseball culture. The team that had been so terrible since beginning play in 1962, routinely losing more than 100 games per season, improbably rallied to become World Series champion. 

LIFE was along for the ride during that 1969 season, chronicling the exploits of Seaver—a young righty just discovering his ability to dominate batters—and also other characters of that miracle team. In its story LIFE called Seaver, then 24, “the team’s first superstar,” and the news of his death 51 years later had many proclaiming him the greatest player ever to wear the New York Mets uniform.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Ace pitcher Tom Seaver, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Tom Seaver won 25 games, the most in the majors, as the leader of the Miracle Mets in 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Shortstop Bud Harrelson, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Third baseman Ed Charles, 1969 Mets.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

First baseman Donn Clendenon, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Outfielder Ron Swoboda, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Tom Seaver won 25 games, the most in the majors, as the leader of the Miracle Mets in 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

1969 New York Mets.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Manager Gil Hodges, 1969 Mets.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Donn Clendenon, 1969

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Pitcher Jerry Koosman (No. 36) and teammates in the Mets dugout.

Co RentmeesterLife Pictures/Shutterstock

Outfielder Art Shamsky, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Manager Gil Hodges (right), 1969 Mets.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Ed Kranepool sliding in with the Pirates’ Jose Martinez in air, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Tom Seaver, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Manager Gil Hodges (right), 1969 Mets.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Ed Charles scored past Pirates catcher Manny Sanguillen, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Tom Seaver dominated for the Miracle Mets in 1969, going 25-7 and winning the first of his three Cy Young awards.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell slid against the Mets, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mets vs. Pirates, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Donn Clendenon, 1969

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Ed Charles, 1969 Mets.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

From left to right: outfielder Tommie Agee, first baseman Donn Clendennon, shortstop Bud Harrelson, and outfielder Ron Swoboda.

Co Rentmeeste/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Tom Seaver, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Catcher Jerry Grote, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Catcher J. C. Martin, 1969 Mets.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

From left to right: coach Yogi Berra, pitcher Tom Seaver, shortstop Al Weis, 1969.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The post Amazin’: Remembering Tom Seaver and the Miracle Mets appeared first on LIFE.

Along the way Sutherland also gained a second sort fame as a father, when his son Kiefer built his own notable acting career, starring in films such as Stand by Me and The Lost Boys, and in the hit television series 24. 

Here, LIFE.com offers a gallery of rare pictures (none of them ran in LIFE magazine) of Sutherland and his family, by photographer Co Rentmeester in 1970. Donald also shows his quirky side in a series of portraits taken in the process of shaving his beard. Sutherland and his wife at the time, the Canadian activist and actress Shirley Douglas, divorced not long after these photos were made. 

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Donald Sutherland and his son, Kiefer, in New York, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland and his son, Kiefer, in New York, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland and his children, twins Kiefer and Rachel, in New York, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland with his wife, Shirley Douglas, and their children (left to right): Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Douglas (Shirley’s son from her first marriage), Rachel Sutherland, in New York, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland shaving, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Shirley Douglas looked at photos of her husband, Donald Sutherland, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland with his twin daughter and son, Rachel and Kiefer, and his stepson, Tom (left), in New York, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland and his children, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland and his children, 1970

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland, 1970.

Co Rentmeester The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Donald Sutherland: Portraits With Kiefer and Family, 1970 appeared first on LIFE.