Tom Skerritt of Top Gun dies: From US Air Force to Hollywood, all about Emmy-winning actor

Tom Skerritt of "Top Gun" has died at the age of 93. Versatile actor Skerritt starred in Hollywood megahits including the sci-fi classic "Alien," the war comedy "M*A*S*H". Skerritt 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. He cared deeply about imagination, creativity, storytelling, service, veterans, the natural world and helping others find and share their own voices,” the statement said.

Skerritt, the Emmy-winning actor who embodied a solid, wry authority figure, whether as a flight instructor in “Top Gun,” a tough-but-fair sheriff on TV's “Picket Fences” or the doomed captain of “Alien,” has died.

Skerritt was twice nominated for an Emmy — both for “Picket Fences,” winning outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 1993. Other career highlights include playing the patient husband of Shirley MacLaine in “Turning Point,” Sally Field’s husband in “Steel Magnolias” and a scheming opportunist who stands in the way of Jodie Foster’s attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial life in “Contact.”

Onstage, he was the narrator in “Our Town” at Seattle’s Intiman Theatre in 2004 and made his Broadway debut in 2013 in an adaptation of John Grisham's “A Time to Kill,” in which The Associated Press wrote he “nicely pulls off a charming disgraced and drunken lawyer.”


Who was Tom Skerritt?

Skerritt grew up in a middle-class Detroit family, his father a small businessman and his mother a housewife. He had two brothers; a sister died as a child.

He spent four years in the Air Force, attended Wayne State University and then switched to the University of California, Los Angeles, to study filmmaking, inspired by a viewing of “Citizen Kane.”

His performance in a Los Angeles theater production of “The Rainmaker” led to his first film role — a supporting role as a sergeant in the 1962 scrappy, $250,000 independent Korean War film “War Hunt.” The movie marked the debuts of Skerritt, Robert Redford, Sydney Pollack and Francis Ford Coppola.

Redford and Skerritt were vying for the same lead role, with the former winning out. Years later, Redford, now directing, paid Skerritt back with compound interest in “A River Runs Through It,” handing him the plum role of the stern Rev. John Maclean, a minister whose governing passions are his faith and fly-fishing. The New York Times was impressed by his “halting, thoughtful manner.”

Redford, who died last year, became a lifelong friend. “There was such a deep connection we made with each other that it matured into a level-headed friendship,” Redford told the Seattle Times in 2007. “His values were close to mine, and he kept his integrity.”

Tom Skerritt Films, Television Shows

Skerritt's Hollywood career spanned from the 1960s to the 2020s. 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.

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.