Actor Tom Skerritt, pictured above in 2018, has died.
Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images
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Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images
It’s impossible to avoid the word rugged with Tom Skerritt. There was the mustache, the jawline, the crinkled eyes and the cool, authoritarian demeanor he brought to memorable roles as commanders, fathers and cops.
Skerritt died Wednesday of natural causes, according to a statement from a representative. He was 93 years old.
He was Captain Dallas in Stranger. Viper in Top Gun. A conscript in the original film M*A*S*H (playing one of the few characters who didn’t transition to the later TV series.) A Vietnam veteran in Cheech and Chong’s stoner classic, In smoke. He played the role of the sheriffs of a small town in the film The dead zone and in the TV series Picket fencesfor which he won an Emmy in 1993.
And he was a dad in Ice castles, steel magnolias And A river runs through it.
Skerritt described himself as a blue-collar kid from Detroit who served in the Air Force before attending UCLA and turning to acting. He spent his early days in Hollywood appearing on television shows, My three sons has The Alfred Hitchcock Hourand spending time with Robert Redford and director Hal Ashby, who cast Skerritt in Harold and Maude (as a cop, of course).
In real life, Skerritt promoted independent film and theater in the Pacific Northwest, where he lived. He co-founded The Red Badge Project, a program for veterans to take storytelling classes and share their experiences.
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