Source : @Variety
LOS ANGELES — Tom Skerritt, the Emmy-winning star of the television series “Picket Fences” whose film career ranged from “MASH” and “Alien” to “Top Gun” and “A River Runs Through It”, has died of natural causes at the age of 93, Variety reported on Thursday (Oct 22).
The publication said Skerritt died on Wednesday, a death it confirmed with his publicist. No further details were given.
The lean, rugged, moustachioed actor won an Emmy in 1993, and was nominated again in 1994, for playing Jimmy Brock, sheriff of the eccentric town at the centre of David E. Kelley’s CBS drama “Picket Fences”, which ran from 1992 to 1996. He also shared Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series for the show in 1995 and 1996, and was nominated that year for outstanding performance by a male actor in a drama series.
In Robert Altman’s “MASH” (1970), Skerritt played Duke Forrest, one of the insubordinate but gifted army surgeons, taking third billing behind Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould. In Ridley Scott’s 1979 science-fiction horror classic “Alien”, he played Dallas, captain of the spaceship Nostromo, and was billed first, ahead of Sigourney Weaver. He had initially turned down the part when the project had a low budget and no director attached.
He went on to co-star in Tony Scott’s 1986 blockbuster “Top Gun” as Commander Mike “Viper” Metcalf, chief instructor at the elite naval flying school where Tom Cruise’s Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell trains. In Robert Redford’s 1992 adaptation of Norman Maclean’s novella “A River Runs Through It”, he played a Presbyterian minister and father to characters played by Brad Pitt and Craig Sheffer. Variety’s review at the time said Skerritt “discreetly reveals the loving core inside the reedy exterior of the boys’ preacher father”.
His long list of film credits also included Altman’s “Thieves Like Us” (1974), Herbert Ross’s “The Turning Point” (1977), which earned him the National Board of Review’s best supporting actor award, the Cheech and Chong comedy “Up in Smoke” (1978), David Cronenberg’s Stephen King adaptation “The Dead Zone” (1983), “Steel Magnolias” (1989), in which he played the father of Julia Roberts’ character, Clint Eastwood’s “The Rookie” (1990), “Poison Ivy” (1992), Robert Zemeckis’ “Contact” (1997) and Antoine Fuqua’s “Tears of the Sun” (2003). He also made a cameo as himself in Seth MacFarlane’s 2012 comedy “Ted”.
On television, Skerritt had a story arc in the sixth season of the NBC sitcom “Cheers” as Evan Drake, the boss of Kirstie Alley’s Rebecca Howe. In the 2000s he guest-starred on “The West Wing” as a senator and on “Law & Order: SVU” as a biased judge, and from 2006 to 2009 he played family patriarch William Walker on ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters”. He later appeared on “The Good Wife” in 2014 and “Madam Secretary” in 2015.
Born Thomas Roy Skerritt in Detroit, he attended Wayne State University and UCLA and served in the US Air Force. He made his feature film debut in the Korean War drama “War Hunt” (1962), and through the 1960s and 1970s made guest appearances on series including “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour”, “The Fugitive”, “Gunsmoke” and “Hawaii Five-O” before “Alien” lifted his career.
Skerritt was married three times. His first two marriages, to Charlotte Shanks and Sue Oran, ended in divorce. He is survived by his third wife, Julie Tokashiki, whom he married in 1998, his sons Andy and Matt and daughter Erin from his first marriage, and his son Colin from his second.
The original Variety post can be viewed on X: https://x.com/Variety/status/2113346532460343652.
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