Tom Skerritt, everyman actor of ‘Alien’ and ‘Picket Fences’ fame, dead at 93

By Dan Heching, CNN

(CNN) — Tom Skerritt, the plucky and handsome actor who charmed audiences on both the big and small screen in titles ranging from “Top Gun” to “Picket Fences,” has died. He was 93.

“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,” the actor’s family said in a statement distributed by his publicist, Susan Madore. The statement said Skerritt died on Wednesday of natural causes.

Skerritt was best known for film appearances in “Alien” and “Steel Magnolias,” along with his starring role on the David E. Kelley-created CBS series “Picket Fences,” which ran from 1992 to 1996 and netted him a Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actor. In the darkly comic series, Skerritt played an aging sheriff struggling to keep things calm in his small town, solidifying his trademark mix of unflappable authority and disarming likability.

With screen credits reaching as far back as the early 1960s, Skerritt found his footing mostly in Westerns before breaking out in the megahit 1970 Robert Altman film “M*A*S*H” as surgeon Duke Forrest.

He went on to appear in various TV shows in the 1970s including “Bonanza” and “Gunsmoke.” He also landed higher-profile film roles including in the Oscar-nominated 1977 movie “The Turning Point” starring Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine.

But it was his role in 1979’s “Alien,” directed by Ridley Scott, that truly expanded Skerritt’s range. In the sci-fi/horror film, Skerritt played Captain Dallas, one of the few who aligns with Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley as their intergalactic shipping crew is faced with a horrible menace.

From there, he won roles in ‘80s films such as “The Dead Zone” and “Top Gun,” the latter of which served as another example of Skerritt’s keen ability to embody characters with a stiff-upper-lip approach and a heart-of-gold persona. In “Top Gun,” he played Viper, a character at first unimpressed with the bravado of Tom Cruise’s character Maverick, soon taking him under his wing.

After a multi-episode arc on “Cheers,” Skerritt appeared as the patriarch in “Steel Magnolias,” the film starring Sally Field, Julia Roberts and Dolly Parton. Skerritt plays husband to Field’s character and father to Roberts’ Shelby, who falls ill toward the end of the film. Fields’ M’Lynn remarks how her husband couldn’t even be in the room when their daughter finally passed away, while she just sat there. “Men are supposed to be made out of steel or something,” she says, in a line that hints at the film’s title.

The 1990s saw Skerritt continue to portray fatherly roles in projects as varied as “A River Runs Through It,” directed by Robert Redford and starring Brad Pitt, and the thriller “Poison Ivy” opposite Drew Barrymore. It was his “River Runs Through It” role as a reverend that saw Skerritt deliver fatherly advice in lines like, “For it is true, we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it’s those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them – we can love completely without complete understanding.”

He continued working, both in TV and film, into the new millennium, in shows including “Brothers & Sisters” and “Will & Grace” and features like “Ted” and “A Hologram for the King.”

In 2020, Skerritt reflected on the origins of his acting career, noting how a screening of “Citizen Kane” in college at UCLA had a profound effect on him.

From the beginning, he said, he “really was a story guy.”

“But I was basically shy. I could never speak in front of people, so the chance of playing someone who is not me—maybe that could break through being shy or being more outgoing, and I could learn what it felt like to be on stage.”

His last credit was in the 2025 film “Broke.”

“He cared deeply about imagination, creativity, storytelling, service, veterans, the natural world, and helping others find and share their own voices,” the Skerritt family said in their statement, which added that he cofounded the Red Badge Project “to help veterans work through PTSD, anxiety, and depression by writing and sharing their experiences.”

Partially inspired by his experience filming “A River Runs Through It,” Skerritt also helped create and champion “Reflections of the River,” a documentary series focusing on America’s rivers and the need to protect them.

The statement added that the late actor is survived by his wife, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

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