Tom Skerritt, Star of ‘Picket Fences’ and ‘Alien,’ Dies
at 93
Mentored by Robert Altman in 'M*A*S*H,' the Emmy-winning
actor later stood out in 'Top Gun,' 'The Turning Point' and 'A River Runs
Through It.'
The Hollywood Reporter
By Chris Koseluk
October 22, 2026
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.”
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.
Skerritt helped launch TheFilmSchool in Seattle to
support the next generation of filmmakers and storytellers. That commitment
extended to the Red Badge Project, which he co-founded to help veterans work
through PTSD, anxiety and depression by writing and sharing their experiences.
His passion for service included protecting the natural
world. Inspired in part by A River Runs Through It, he helped create and
champion Reflections of the River, a documentary series exploring the health of
America’s rivers and the urgent need to protect them. He also supported river
conservation through partnerships with the Wildlands Festival, American Rivers
and the Gallatin River Task Force.
SKERRITT, Tom (Thomas Roy Skerritt)
Born: 8/25/1933, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.
Died: 10/21/2026, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
Tom Skerritt’s westerns – actor:
The Virginian (TV) 1962-1971 (Billy Landers, Bobby Allen,
Eric Kroeger)
Death Valley Days (TV) – 1963-1968 (Dennis Driscoll,
Emmett Dalton, Mark Twain)
Laramie (TV) - 1963 (Price)
Temple Houston (TV) – 1963
Bonanza (TV) -1964-1973 (Corporal Bill Tanner, Jerry)
Wagon Train (TV) - 1964 (Hamish Browne)
Gunsmoke (TV) 1965-1972 (Ben Stone, Edmund Dano, Fred
Garth)
Cimarron Strip (TV) - 1968 (Enoch Shelton)
Lancer (TV) - 1969 (Bill Blake)
Wild Rovers -1971 (John Buckman)
Nichols (TV) - 1971 (Charley Doyle)
The Last Day (TV) – 1975 (Bill Powers)
Sara (TV) – 1976 (Newt Johnson)
Silence of the North – 1981 (Walter Reamer)
Poker Alice (TV) – 1987 (Jeremy Collins)
Smoke Signals – 1998 (police chief)
Two for Texas (TV) – 1998 (Sam Houston)
High Noon (TV) – 2000 (Will Kane)
Texas Rangers – 2001 (Richard Dukes)
Gun – 2005 - [voice of Clay Allison]
The American West (TV) – 2016 (Texas Ranger)
Lucky – 2017 (Fred)
Catch the Bullett – 2021 (Dex)
Broke – 2025 (Cliff)
