Tom Skerritt dies at 93: Alien, Top Gun and Picket Fences star

Tom Skerritt, the lean, rugged US actor who played Captain Dallas in Alien, Viper in Top Gun and Sheriff Jimmy Brock in Picket Fences, has died aged 93. One screenwriter described him as "a character actor trapped in a leading man's body" — a line that captures the whole arc of a career built on authority figures rather than marquee stardom.

From MAS*H to the Nostromo

Skerritt's breakthrough came in Robert Altman's 1970 film MAS*H. He played Augustus "Duke" Forrest, a US army surgeon exuding southern charm at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean war. Alongside Donald Sutherland's Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce and Elliott Gould's "Trapper" John McIntyre, Duke showed cynicism and irreverence toward his superiors.

His character never made the jump to the TV series. Writer Larry Gelbart, who adapted the novel for television with Gene Reynolds, said the team wanted characters who could generate storylines, adding: "Trapper John just seemed more colourful than Duke." Some sources had reported that Skerritt doubted the film would work as a half-hour sitcom.

He stayed busy in character roles until worldwide attention arrived with Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror film Alien (1979), where he played the doomed Captain Dallas, commander of the commercial space tug Nostromo. The film also made a star of Sigourney Weaver.

Skerritt initially turned the part down. He changed his mind on hearing that Ridley Scott would direct, having admired Scott's debut, the Napoleonic wars drama The Duellists (1977), which he regarded as a "classic … a painting from beginning to end".

Why directors kept casting him

In Top Gun (1986), directed by Ridley's brother Tony Scott, Skerritt played Mike "Viper" Metcalf, mentoring Tom Cruise's fighter pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell at the elite US navy school. Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It (1992) gave him the Presbyterian minister who bonds with his sons (Craig Sheffer and Brad Pitt) through fly-fishing — the Hollywood Reporter noted that "he has one of his richest roles in years as their emotionally cut-off father".

That same year brought Picket Fences (1992-96), where Skerritt finally took star billing as Jimmy Brock, a warm small-town sheriff in Rome, Wisconsin, married to psychiatrist Jill (Kathy Baker) with three children. "We're the ones with whom the audience might most relate to – because all these other folks are crazy!" he said of the role.

The show's daring storylines — exploding cows' udders, animal sacrifice, date rape — tackled euthanasia, abortion, incest and homophobia, groundbreaking territory for peak-time US television. Skerritt won a Primetime Emmy as outstanding lead actor in a drama series and stayed in the public eye across the programme's four runs.

What does this change for his legacy?

"I've never really been comfortable with celebrity," Skerritt admitted — and like Dallas, he initially turned down Jimmy Brock before the storylines won him over. After the series ended, he returned to guest TV roles and supporting film parts, closing out a hard-working career of almost 200 screen characters.

Early life and the long apprenticeship

Skerritt was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Roy Skerritt, a business executive, and his wife, Helen (nee Maybee). After Mackenzie high school he served in the US air force as a classification specialist (1951-55), then studied English at Wayne State University and UCLA, where he took up acting. Director Denis Sanders and producer Terry Sanders spotted him in a stage production of The Rainmaker and cast him as a soldier in War Hunt (1962), alongside Robert Redford.

One-off TV roles followed — My Three Sons (1963), Wagon Train (1964) and The Fugitive (two parts, 1966 and 1967) — before MAS*H had him moving between big and small screens. He was a motorcycle cop in Harold and Maude (1971), credited as Martin Bormann, the name of Hitler's private secretary. "We did silly things in those days," he explained.

His film credits ran wide:

• Shelley Duvall's mechanic father in Thieves Like Us (1974), reuniting him with Altman
• Shirley MacLaine's husband, a retired ballet dancer, in The Turning Point (1977)
• A Vietnam veteran in the cult classic Up in Smoke (1978), with Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong
• Sally Field's good-hearted husband, father of Julia Roberts' character, in Steel Magnolias (1989)

On television he played Evan Drake, Kirstie Alley's suave former boss, in the sixth series of Cheers (1987-88), Joe Kennedy in Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (2000) and General William Westmoreland in Path to War (2002). He returned as Field's husband, deceased and seen in flashback, in the first three series of Brothers & Sisters (2006-09).

Skerritt's first two marriages ended in divorce. He is survived by his third wife, Julie (nee Tokashiki), whom he married in 1998, and their daughter, Emi; by Andy, Dan and Erin, the children of his first marriage, to Charlotte Shanks; and by Colin, the son from his second, to Sue Oran. His filmography — nearly 200 roles across six decades — stands as the record of an actor who rarely carried top billing, yet became one of the most reliably recognisable faces in American screen acting.