Tom Skerritt, Star of ‘Picket Fences’ and ‘Alien,’ Dies at 93

Tom Skerritt Courtesy of Photofest

Tom Skerritt, the rough-hewn actor who sparkled amid ensembles in M*A*S*H, Alien and Top Gun before starring as small-town sheriff Jimmy Brock on the quirky 1990s series Picket Fences, has died. He was 93.

Skerritt died Wednesday of natural causes, his family announced.

“We are heartbroken by his loss,” they said. “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. He cared deeply about imagination, creativity, storytelling, service, veterans, the natural world and helping others find and share their own voices.”

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The collaborative Skerritt also portrayed Shirley MacLaine’s husband in the 11-time Oscar nominee The Turning Point (1977), was Tom Cruise’s Air Force instructor Mike “Viper” Metcalf in Top Gun (1986) and was memorable as a minister and the patriarch of the MacLean family in Robert Redford’s rhythmic A River Runs Through It (1992).

Known for his outdoorsy features and bristly mustache, the handsome actor exuded masculinity during his six-decade career and was often cast in positions of authority — as when he starred as the iconic lawman Will Kane in a 2000 remake of High Noon for TBS.

Skerritt’s breakthrough came in the 1970 feature M*A*S*H. As Southern surgeon Duke Forrest, he opens the film by stealing a jeep with co-conspirator Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland) to get them to the mobile hospital where they’re assigned to treat injured U.S. soldiers during the Korean War.

Once there, the two join forces with Trapper John McIntrye (Elliott Gould) and set about questioning any rigid army regulation that stands in the way of their drinking and womanizing.

The anti-establishment, freewheeling comedy, directed by Robert Altman, was one of the year’s most popular films and led to the long-running CBS series of the same name. Curiously, Skerritt’s character was one of the few not included in the small-screen adaptation; nonetheless, the role proved the actor had star power.

The Detroit native credited Altman for giving him the freedom to create the character. “I just loved the guy from the first. He made me realize early on that you could do no wrong, as long as you tried,” Skerritt said in Mitchell Zuckoff’s 2009 book Robert Altman: The Oral Biography. “The worst you could do was make an ass out of yourself. And that’s the first thing you have to be willing to do as an actor, be willing to make an ass out of yourself. Bob gave me that.”

After his success with M*A*S*H, Skerritt began landing work in more films — Wild Rovers (1971), Fuzz (1972), Big Bad Mama (1974) and Ice Castles (1978) among them. He worked again with Altman in Thieves Like Us (1974) and did a zany turn in Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke (1978) as Strawberry, a shell-shocked, pot-dealing Vietnam veteran.

Skerritt originally turned down the role as Captain Dallas of the doomed spacecraft Nostromo in Alien (1979) after fearing that the film’s budget would be consumed by special effects. However, he reconsidered after learning that Ridley Scott had signed on to direct.

As Skerritt recalled in an interview for the 2001 TV documentary Alien Evolution, “Hold on here, let me see. I’ve heard of this Ridley Scott guy, I’ve heard that he did this thing called The Duellists [Scott’s 1977 feature debut]. ‘Can I see this?’ And they said, ‘Yes, we’ll run a screening for you tomorrow.’ So I went to see The Duellists. And it was a masterpiece. I mean, I have never seen a picture that captured so much production value as The Duellists. Magnificent-looking film, a painting from beginning to end. So I had to do Alien at that point.”

For four seasons on CBS beginning in 1992, Skerritt starred on David E. Kelley’s Picket Fences as the sheriff of the fictional Rome, Wisconsin, the voice of calm amid insanity. Skerritt, who played the husband of the town doctor (Kathy Baker) and a father of three, won the Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 1993 and was nominated again the following year.

On the sixth season of Cheers, he portrayed Rebecca Howe’s (Kirstie Alley) ultra-suave ex-boss, Evan Drake, and played Sally Field’s deceased husband, William, on Brothers and Sisters. And he appeared as himself in a hilarious cameo in the 2012 comedy Ted.

And in 2021, he landed a rare leading role in a feature when he played a retired heart surgeon and recent widower who learns he has terminal cancer in East of the Mountains.

Thomas Roy Skerritt was born on Aug. 25, 1933, in the Motor City. After graduating from Mackenzie High School in 1951, he enlisted in the Air Force, hoping to see the world. Instead, lacking the skills to be a pilot, he spent most of his time in uniform in Austin as a classification specialist. Skerritt then returned to his hometown to study English at Wayne State University.

Deciding to pursue a career as a writer or director, Skerritt transferred to UCLA, where he also did some acting in a bid to overcome his shyness. He never dreamed he could make a living at it.

“I thought I would continue writing and continue acting if I was going to be a director,” Skerritt told Film Comment in 2016. “I happened to be seen as an actor and I was hired for a little low-budget film and I thought, ‘Hey, this is a great way to learn how to be a director, to be a participant in the actual reality of making a film.’

“You can’t be a filmmaker purely by going to the university, as you know. The practical knowledge, the street knowledge you can gain by being on a set, being around that, being around the way people talk, the way they approach the business, was really the benefit I saw in it from the beginning.”

The low-budget film was War Hunt (1962). Its producers, Terry and Denis Sanders, had seen Skerritt in a community stage production and offered him a job. The drama, featuring John Saxon, Sydney Pollack, Redford and Gavin MacLeod, was, like M*A*S*H, set during the Korean War.

Skerritt’s on-camera appeal couldn’t be denied, and he easily found more acting work. Throughout the 1960s, he appeared on episodes of Laramie, The Real McCoys, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, My Three Sons, Wagon Train, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel and Mannix.

The shows Death Valley Days, Gunsmoke, The F.B.I., The Fugitive, 12 O’Clock High, Combat!, Bonanza and The Virginian showcased him multiple times in different roles.

After becoming friends with director Hal Ashby, Skerrit appeared in Harold and Maude (1971) as a motorcycle cop. (Skerritt stepped in to do the small role as a favor after an on-set accident caused an actor to bow out.) When asked about a credit, he chose to use Martin Bormann instead of his real name.

“We did silly things in those days, and we still do,” he told Film Comment. “And I said, ‘You know, Martin Bormann, second in command to Hitler, nobody ever found out what happened to that guy. Everyone else they were able to trace, but that guy just vanished.’ I said, ‘You know, I think he went to Oakland and became a motorcycle cop.’ ”

His other notable film credits included Savage Harvest (1981), The Dead Zone (1983), SpaceCamp (1986), Made to Order (1987), The Rookie (1990), Steel Magnolias (1989), Contact (1997), The Other Sister (1999), Tears of the Sun (2003), Bonneville (2006), Redemption Road (2010), A Hologram for the King (2016) and Day of Days (2017).

Skerritt also popped up on television on Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, S.W.A.T., Baretta, Chicago Hope, Will & Grace, The West Wing, The Grid, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Huff, Leverage, The Good Wife and Madam Secretary.

Survivors include his third wife, Julie Tokashiki, whom he married in 1998; his children, Andy, Erin, Matt, Collin and Emiko; grandchildren Sara, Maddison, Sunny, Louisa and Georgia; and great-grandchildren Marigold and Ravi.