Tom Skerritt, Emmy-Winning Star of Alien, Top Gun and Picket Fences, Dies at 93

Tom Skerritt, the lean, laconic actor who anchored hits from "Alien" to "Top Gun," died Wednesday, Oct. 21, of natural causes. He was 93. His family announced his death in a statement on Thursday, Oct. 22.

"While the world knew Tom through his remarkable acting career, we knew him for his humor, curiosity, wisdom, generosity, and the love he brought into our lives," the family said. They also said he "cared deeply about imagination, creativity, storytelling, service, veterans, the natural world, and helping others find and share their own voices." The family asked for privacy.

From Detroit to the Air Force to Hollywood

Skerritt was born Aug. 25, 1933, in Detroit. His father was a small businessman and his mother a homemaker.

He served four years in the U.S. Air Force, then attended Wayne State University before moving to UCLA. He paid for school with the help of the G.I. Bill and set out to study filmmaking, not acting.

"Being a blue-collar, middle-class guy from Detroit, I had transferred out to UCLA as an English major who was interested in directing," he told Film Comment in 2016. He said he never thought he could make a living as an actor.

A role in a Los Angeles stage production of "The Rainmaker" changed that. It led to his film debut in 1962's "War Hunt," a Korean War picture made for roughly $250,000. The film also marked the debuts of Robert Redford, Sydney Pollack and Francis Ford Coppola.

The breakthrough and the big roles

The work stayed small for years. Skerritt picked up bit parts in Robert Altman's "Thieves Like Us" and Hal Ashby's "Harold and Maude," along with early television spots on "The Real McCoys," "Gunsmoke" and "Death Valley Days."

His breakthrough came in 1970 as Capt. Duke Forrest in Altman's "MAS*H," a Best Picture nominee and a major box office hit.

In 1979 he played Capt. Dallas, the doomed commander in Ridley Scott's "Alien." He had first turned the film down over its budget. "At two million bucks and with other actors that I don't know about, this is a film that could have been directed by Ed Wood," he said in a 2019 interview. He later called it "one of the most memorable things" in his career and said, "I recognized we were making something extraordinary."

He also appeared opposite Shirley MacLaine in "The Turning Point" (1977), and later in "The Dead Zone" and "Steel Magnolias," where he played Sally Field's husband.

In 1986 he was Cmdr. Mike "Viper" Metcalf, the Vietnam veteran instructor who tells Tom Cruise's Maverick, "You have a confidence problem." He almost lost the part. In a 2021 Vulture interview he said producers questioned whether he was too "laconic," and that it "pissed me off."

Picket Fences and the Redford reunion

Skerritt's longest television run was CBS's "Picket Fences," which aired from 1992 to 1996. He played Sheriff Jimmy Brock in David E. Kelley's drama about a small Wisconsin town. He won the Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 1993.

Co-star Lauren Holly, who played his deputy, called him "our leader." She wrote that "his example made those years such a joy and we all loved and respected him so much."

In 1992 he reunited with Redford in "A River Runs Through It," playing the stern minister Rev. John Maclean. Redford had beaten him for the lead in "War Hunt." Redford, who died last year, called Skerritt a lifelong friend. "His values were close to mine, and he kept his integrity," Redford told the Seattle Times in 2007.

Skerritt's credits also include "Contact" with Jodie Foster, "Poison Ivy," "The Other Sister," "Tears of the Sun," and a Broadway debut in 2013 in "A Time to Kill." He logged more than 170 screen credits. His last film role was in the 2025 western "Broke."

He described his own career this way in a 1997 interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "A writer once described me as a character actor locked in a leading man's body, and I've always loved that."

Work beyond the screen

In 2012, Skerritt co-founded the Red Badge Project, a nonprofit that helps veterans manage post-traumatic stress through storytelling and writing.

He also co-founded TheFilmSchool in Seattle to support emerging filmmakers. In 2020 he and his wife, Julie Tokashiki, launched the film company Triple Squirrels. They met on the set of "Picket Fences."

He was previously married to Sue Oran for 15 years and Charlotte Shanks for 15 years before that. He is survived by Tokashiki, five children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

The family has not announced funeral or memorial plans.