\n\tTom 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.<\/p>\n
\n\tSkerritt died Wednesday in Seattle of natural causes, his family announced.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe are heartbroken by his loss,\u201d they said. \u201cWhile 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe collaborative Skerritt also portrayed Shirley MacLaine\u2019s husband in the 11-time Oscar nominee The Turning Point (1977), was Tom Cruise\u2019s Air Force instructor Mike \u201cViper\u201d Metcalf in Top Gun (1986) and was memorable as a minister and the patriarch of the MacLean family in Robert Redford<\/a>\u2018s rhythmic A River Runs Through It (1992).<\/p>\n \n\tKnown 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 \u2014 as when he starred as the iconic lawman Will Kane in a 2000 remake of High Noon for TBS.<\/p>\n \n\tSkerritt\u2019s 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<\/a>) to get them to the mobile hospital where they\u2019re assigned to treat injured U.S. soldiers during the Korean War.<\/p>\n \n\tOnce 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.<\/p>\n \n\tThe anti-establishment, freewheeling comedy, directed by Robert Altman<\/a>, was one of the year\u2019s most popular films and led to the long-running CBS series of the same name. Curiously, Skerritt\u2019s character was one of the few not included in the small-screen adaptation; nonetheless, the role proved the actor had star power.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Detroit native credited Altman for giving him the freedom to create the character. \u201cI just loved the guy from the first. He made me realize early on that you could do no wrong, as long as you tried,\u201d Skerritt said in Mitchell Zuckoff\u2019s 2009 book Robert Altman: The Oral Biography. \u201cThe worst you could do was make an ass out of yourself. And that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAfter his success with M*A*S*H, Skerritt began landing work in more films \u2014 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\u2019s Up in Smoke (1978) as Strawberry, a shell-shocked, pot-dealing Vietnam veteran<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tSkerritt originally turned down the role as Captain Dallas of the doomed spacecraft Nostromo in Alien (1979) after fearing that the film\u2019s budget would be consumed by special effects. However, he reconsidered after learning that Ridley Scott had signed on to direct.<\/p>\n \n\tAs Skerritt recalled in an interview<\/a> for the 2001 TV documentary Alien Evolution, \u201cHold on here, let me see. I\u2019ve heard of this Ridley Scott guy, I\u2019ve heard that he did this thing called The Duellists [Scott\u2019s 1977 feature debut]. \u2018Can I see this?\u2019 And they said, \u2018Yes, we\u2019ll run a screening for you tomorrow.\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor four seasons on CBS beginning in 1992, Skerritt starred on David E. Kelley\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \n\tOn the sixth season of Cheers, he portrayed Rebecca Howe\u2019s (Kirstie Alley<\/a>) ultra-suave ex-boss, Evan Drake, and played Sally Field\u2019s deceased husband, William, on Brothers and Sisters. And he appeared as himself in a hilarious cameo in the 2012 comedy Ted.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd 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. <\/p>\n \n\tThomas 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.<\/p>\n \n\tDeciding 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.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI thought I would continue writing and continue acting if I was going to be a director,\u201d Skerritt told<\/a> Film Comment in 2016. \u201cI happened to be seen as an actor and I was hired for a little low-budget film and I thought, \u2018Hey, this is a great way to learn how to be a director, to be a participant in the actual reality of making a film.\u2019<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou can\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe 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<\/a>, Sydney Pollack, Redford and Gavin MacLeod<\/a>, was, like M*A*S*H, set during the Korean War.<\/p>\n \n\tSkerritt\u2019s on-camera appeal couldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n \n\tThe shows Death Valley Days, Gunsmoke, The F.B.I., The Fugitive, 12 O\u2019Clock High, Combat!, Bonanza and The Virginian showcased him multiple times in different roles.<\/p>\n \n\tAfter 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.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe did silly things in those days, and we still do,\u201d he told Film Comment. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018You 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.\u2019 I said, \u2018You know, I think he went to Oakland and became a motorcycle cop.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHis 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).<\/p>\n \n\tSkerritt 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.<\/p>\n \n\tSurvivors 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.<\/p>\n \n\tSkerritt 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.<\/p>\n \n\tHis 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\u2019s rivers and the urgent need to protect them. He also supported river conservation through partnerships with the Wildlands Festival<\/a>, American Rivers and the Gallatin River Task Force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Skerritt, the rough-hewn actor who sparkled amid ensembles in M*A*S*H, Alien and Top Gun before starring as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,10756,85931],"class_list":["post-891248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-obituaries","tag-robert-altman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}