By Will Dunham
Oct 22 (Reuters) – Versatile actor Tom Skerritt, who starred in Hollywood megahits including the sci-fi classic “Alien,” the war comedy “M*A*S*H,” and the action drama “Top Gun,” has died at the age of 93.
Skerritt, a Detroit native whose Hollywood career spanned from the 1960s to the 2020s, died on Wednesday of natural causes, his family said in a statement.
“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,” they said. “He cared deeply about imagination, creativity, storytelling, service, veterans, the natural world, and helping others find and share their own voices.”
Known for his rugged good looks and ability to shine in a variety of genres, Skerritt delivered memorable performances in leading and supporting roles in film and television.
Skerritt’s breakthrough role was a roguish US Army surgeon in director Robert Altman’s 1970 Korean War black comedy “M*A*S*H,” a film whose ensemble cast also included Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould and Sally Kellerman. Skerritt played Southerner Duke Forrest as the doctors at the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital stitched up wounded troops.
The film, whose popularity coincided with American unease over the Vietnam War, was nominated for five Academy Awards.
In director Ridley Scott’s claustrophobic 1979 sci-fi horror “Alien,” Skerritt played Dallas, the captain of an ill-fated spacecraft whose crew encounters a deadly parasitic extraterrestrial creature with a surrealist look and a bad attitude. In the film’s famous and bloody “chestburster” scene, Skerritt’s character is seated next to cast mate John Hurt when a baby alien violently exits the torso of Hurt’s character.
“Alien,” an influential masterpiece whose ensemble cast also included Sigourney Weaver and Ian Holm, earned two Oscar nominations.
“It is spontaneity and impulse that make the difference, and that is what I felt we had with ‘Alien.’ Every one of us had that immediate rapport with each other — the respect that I had for the other actors and the respect that they had for me,” Skerritt told interviewer Peter Sobczynski in 2019, while also lauding Scott’s directorial brilliance.
“Alien” was one of several films in which Skerritt appeared that featured strong female characters, in this case Weaver’s courageous character Ripley. That was considered pioneering at the time.
“When I read the script, one of the things that I liked most about it was that the woman becomes the hero. I loved that,” Skerritt said.
“The sight of women being in positions of strength and fortitude to make the right connections and decisions was what appealed to me. I experienced that as well in ‘Steel Magnolias,’ with the women in that. I liked the idea of women being tough and strong and influential.”
In “Steel Magnolias” (1989), Skerritt played Drum Eatenton, husband of Sally Field’s M’Lynn Eatenton.
Tony Scott, the brother of the “Alien” director, cast Skerritt in the key supporting role of naval aviation instructor Viper Metcalf in the 1986 blockbuster “Top Gun” that helped star Tom Cruise soar into Hollywood’s stratosphere.
Skerritt also played Shirley MacLaine’s husband in director Herbert Ross’s 1977 ballet drama “The Turning Point,” and starred alongside another emerging star in Brad Pitt in Robert Redford’s beautifully shot 1992 period drama “A River Runs Through It.”
Among other films in which he appeared were: “Harold and Maude” (1971), “Ice Castles” (1978), “The Dead Zone” (1983), “Poltergeist III” (1988), “Contact” (1997), “Tears of the Sun” (2003) and “Ted” (2012).
On the small screen, Skerritt starred in the offbeat CBS series “Picket Fences” from 1992 to 1996, playing a Wisconsin town sheriff and claiming an Emmy as outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 1993.
Born on August 25, 1933, in Detroit, Skerritt served in the US Air Force before becoming an actor, making his film debut in 1962 alongside a young Redford in “War Hunt.” He was a father of five children and was married three times.
(Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington, additional reporting by Danielle Broadway in Los Angeles, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
