Tom Skerritt, Actor From 'M*A*S*H', 'Alien' and 'Top Gun', Dies Aged 93
Seven Lights
Tom Skerritt, the Emmy Award-winning US actor who landed his breakout role in the movie “MAS*H” before starring in “Alien”, “Top Gun” and other films, has died at 93, CBS News reported. Skerritt died on Wednesday of natural causes, his family said, as reported by the BBC.
“While the world knew Tom through his remarkable acting career, we knew him for his humour, curiosity, wisdom, generosity and the love he brought into our lives,” his family said in a statement, as quoted by the BBC. The family added that he will be remembered “for his belief that stories can help people heal, find purpose and create change,” the BBC reported. Skerritt was also an Air Force veteran and a father of five, CBS News said.
Born in 1933 in Detroit, Michigan, Skerritt served in the US Air Force before pursuing an acting career that boasted several military roles, the BBC reported. He made his film debut in 1962 alongside a young Robert Redford in “War Hunt”, and years later reunited with Redford in the 1992 period drama “A River Runs Through It”, which starred Brad Pitt, the BBC said.
His breakthrough came when he played US army surgeon Duke Forrest in the 1970 Korean War comedy “MAS*H”, which also starred Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould and Sally Kellerman, the BBC reported. The hit film, released amid unrest over the Vietnam War, was nominated for five Academy Awards and was adapted for television two years later, the BBC said. Skerritt also starred alongside Sigourney Weaver in the 1979 sci-fi film “Alien”, which earned two Oscar nominations and led to three sequels and several crossover projects, the BBC reported. “It is spontaneity and impulse that make the difference, and that is what I felt we had with ‘Alien’,” Skerritt said in a 2019 interview, according to Reuters as cited by the BBC. “Every one of us had that immediate rapport with each other.” He said one of the things he liked most when he first read the script was that “the woman becomes a hero”, referring to Weaver’s character Ripley, the BBC reported.
During his career Skerritt appeared opposite several prominent female leads, including Shirley MacLaine in the 1977 film “The Turning Point” and Sally Field, whose husband he played in 1989’s “Steel Magnolias”, the BBC reported. In a six-decade career he also appeared in “Ted” and starred in the television series “Picket Fences”, the BBC said; CBS News described him as an Emmy Award-winning actor. Skerritt co-founded TheFilmSchool in Seattle to support next-generation filmmakers and storytellers, the BBC reported.
CBS News video coverage of his death noted his breakout role in “MAS*H” and his service as an Air Force veteran, and the New York Times published an obituary recording his death.