Actor Tom Skerritt, star of Alien and Top Gun, dies aged 93

Tom Skerritt, the US actor known for roles in Alien, Top Gun, M*A*S*H and Picket Fences, has died aged 93. His family said he died of natural causes on Wednesday, according to reports from India Today and the South China Morning Post. In a statement, his family said that although audiences knew Skerritt through his acting, they knew him for his humour, curiosity, wisdom, generosity and love.

They also said he cared about imagination, storytelling, veterans, the natural world and helping others find their voices. Skerritt’s career began in the early 1960s and continued into the 2020s, spanning film, television and theatre. He made his film debut in War Hunt in 1962, appearing alongside a young Robert Redford.

France 24 reported that the film also marked early appearances by Sydney Pollack and Francis Ford Coppola. His breakthrough came in Robert Altman’s 1970 Korean War black comedy M*A*S*H, in which he played Duke Forrest, a Southern US Army surgeon at a mobile military hospital. The film’s ensemble cast included Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould and Sally Kellerman, and it received five Academy Award nominations.

Skerritt later played Captain Dallas in Ridley Scott’s 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien. Dallas was the commander of the Nostromo, the spacecraft whose crew encounters a lethal extraterrestrial creature. Skerritt’s character was present during the film’s famous chestburster sequence, in which the creature emerges from John Hurt’s character.

Speaking to interviewer Peter Sobczynski in 2019, Skerritt recalled the cast’s rapport and praised Scott’s direction. He also said he was drawn to Alien because Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley became the hero, describing his appreciation for women portrayed as strong, decisive and influential. In 1986, Tony Scott cast him as naval aviation instructor Viper Metcalf in Top Gun, the film that helped establish Tom Cruise as a major star.

Other prominent film roles included The Turning Point, Steel Magnolias, A River Runs Through It, The Dead Zone, Poltergeist III, Contact, Tears of the Sun and Ted. His television work brought him his most significant award. Skerritt played Sheriff Jimmy Brock in CBS’s Picket Fences from 1992 to 1996, portraying the head of a Wisconsin town amid unusual events.

He won the Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 1993 and was nominated again for the role. France 24 reported that Skerritt also worked on stage, including as the narrator in Our Town and in a 2013 Broadway adaptation of A Time to Kill. Born in Detroit on August 25, 1933, he served in the US Air Force before becoming an actor.

He was married three times and had five children.