Tom Skerritt, known for his roles in ‘Alien,’ ‘Top Gun’ and the TV series ‘Picket Fences,’ dies at 93

Tom Skerritt, the actor known for his roles in “Alien,” “Top Gun” and the television series “Picket Fences,” has died, his publicist confirmed to CBS News on Thursday. He was 93 years old.

Skerritt died Wednesday of natural causes, his family said in a statement.

“We are heartbroken by his loss,” the family said. “While the world knew Tom through his remarkable acting career, we knew him for his humor, his curiosity, his wisdom, his generosity and the love he brought into our lives.”

Skerritt has been nominated for an Emmy twice – both for CBS’ “Picket Fences,” winning Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1993. Other career highlights include playing the patient husband of Shirley MacLaine in “The Turning Point”, Sally Field’s husband in “Steel Magnolias” and a scheming opportunist who obstructs Jodie Foster’s attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial life in “Contact”.

“A writer once described me as an actor trapped in a leading man’s body, and I always liked that. It’s a nice compliment. I was able to cross the line between television and feature films,” he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1997.

On stage, he was the narrator of “Our Town” at Seattle’s Intiman Theater in 2004 and made his Broadway debut in 2013 in an adaptation of John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill,” in which the Associated Press wrote that he “portrays nicely a charming, disgraced, drunken lawyer.”

Skerritt’s beginnings

Skerritt grew up in a middle-class Detroit family, his father a small businessman and his mother a housewife. He had two brothers; a sister died when she was a child.

He spent four years in the Air Force, attended Wayne State University, then transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles to study film, inspired by watching “Citizen Kane.”

His performance in a Los Angeles theater production of “The Rainmaker” landed him his first film role – a supporting role as a sergeant in the 1962 independent Korean War film, “War Hunt.” The film marked Skerritt’s debut, Robert Redford, Sydney Pollack and Francis Ford Coppola.

Redford and Skerritt competed for the same lead role, with the former winning. Years later, Redford, now a director, repaid Skerritt with compound interest in “A River Runs Through It,” casting him in the prune role of the stern Reverend John Maclean, a minister whose ruling passions are his faith and fly fishing. The New York Times was impressed by his “hesitating and thoughtful attitude.”

Redford, who died last yearbecame a friend for life. “We established such a deep connection that it blossomed into a balanced friendship,” Redford told the Seattle Times in 2007. “His values ​​were close to mine and he maintained his integrity.”

“Alien” and “Top Gun”

After “War Hunt”, however, Skerritt still struggled for screen time, landing a small role in “M*A*S*H” and “Thieves Like Us” for Robert Altmanand playing a small role as a motorcycle cop in “Harold and Maude” for Hal Ashby.

Things changed with “The Turning Point,” which earned him a victory at the National Board of Review. Then came “Alien,” with Skerritt playing the beleaguered and doomed captain of the ship Nostromo, crouched in a dark, claustrophobic conduit, hunting the alien with a crackling flamethrower. He told the Seattle Times that what appealed to him about the script was that the lead actor disappeared and “the woman became the hero. I really like that idea.”

Things changed again after that, including a memorable role as Tom Cruise’s instructor in the famous “Top Gun”: “Gentlemen, you are the top 1 percent of naval aviators. The elite. The best of the best. We will make you better,” he told the students. “This school is all about fighting. There are no points for second place.”

Skerritt perhaps got his highest marks playing the kindly sheriff in “Picket Fences,” a comedy created by David E. Kelley that won 14 Emmy Awards — including one for Skerritt — and a Golden Globe during its four-year run, from 1992 to 1996.

Skerritt starred opposite Kathy Baker, playing his doctor wife in the community of Rome, Wisconsin, a place where bizarre events take place, such as a thief leaving a trail of frogs or the Pope becoming the primary witness to a murder.

“It was written by the best writer in television,” he told the AV Club in 2019. “That was the magic and the brilliance of the story. Because I wasn’t trying to do a series, but then they said Kathy Baker was going to do it, and I was like, ‘She’s fabulous, why do they want me?'”

Also on the small screen, Skerritt played William Walker on ABC’s “Brothers and Sisters,” Jimmy Ford on TNT’s “Leverage” and he had the recurring character Evan Drake on “Cheers.” He starred in the Hallmark movie “What the Deaf Man Heard”, with Matthew Modine, Judith Ivey and James Earl Jones. He also modeled for Guess jeans.

Directing and writing – his initial dream – had been overtaken by a career in front of the camera, although he managed to direct and star in the 1997 TV movie “Divided by Hate.”

“Things happen,” he told the Ottawa Citizen in 1992. “You get hired for a movie and the roles come rolling in for me. I kept telling myself that if I stuck to acting, it would be really good training for directing issues. Then family came along and I had to support them. Years went by and there was a time when I said I would give up acting and really try to make myself launch into directing. But it didn’t work out that way and I have no regrets.”

He is survived by his third wife, Julie Tokashiki, and five children.