Tom Skerritt, a longtime on-screen voice of authority, has died. His piercing blue eyes and salt-and-pepper mustache were a familiar sight to fans of movies like M*A*S*H, Alien, and Top Gun. Skerritt was 93.

Thomas Roy Skerritt was born in Detroit, Michigan on August 25, 1933. After a stint in the US Air Force, he studied at UCLA, where he was discovered in a production of The Rainmaker. His first on-screen role came in the 1962 war film War Hunt, starring John Saxon and Robert Redford. Many TV and movie roles followed; he was a regular guest star on series like The Virginian, Gunsmoke, and Combat!. Eventually, he broke out as Korean War surgeon Duke Forrest in 1970’s M*A*S*H. More roles would follow, including in the films Thieves Like Us, The Turning Point, and Up in Smoke.

Skerritt almost didn’t star in one of his most famous films; he thought Alien would be a “special effects movie,” but was persuaded to sign up when he saw Ridley Scott‘s prior movie, The Duellists. Skerritt was top-billed in the movie, and promoted as the movie’s protagonist; his character’s death is one of cinema’s greatest acts of sleight of hand. Never constrained by genre, he didn’t survive for Alien‘s many sequels, but would have memorable roles in The Dead Zone, Top Gun, Poltergeist III, and Steel Magnolias; he also had a memorable guest run on Cheers, playing Rebecca’s eminently desirable boss.

In the 1990s, Skerritt returned to the small screen, starring on the quirky David E. Kelley drama Picket Fences as small-town sheriff Jimmy Brock. The series ran for four seasons from 1992 to 1996, and won Skerritt an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama Series. After the show ended, Skerritt picked up right where he left off, playing reasonable authority figures in movies like Contact, Tears of the Sun, Lucky, and, in a memorable cameo as himself, Ted. His last film was the 2025 Wyatt Russell Western Broke.

Skerritt died on Wednesday of natural causes. He is survived by his wife, Julie Tokashiki; his children, Andy, Erin, Matt, Collin, and Emiko; his grandchildren Sara, Maddison, Sunny, Louisa, and Georgia; and his great-grandchildren Marigold and Ravi. =

 

via Collider