Tom Skerritt, the actor who brought quiet authority to the bridge of the Nostromo in “Alien” and to a small-town sheriff’s office in “Picket Fences,” died Wednesday of natural causes. He was 93. His family announced the news in a statement shared through his publicist, Susan Madore.
Skerritt worked steadily in film and television for more than six decades. He played Captain Dallas in Ridley Scott’s 1979 science-fiction classic “Alien,” alongside Sigourney Weaver. Seven years later he was Viper, the steely flight instructor sizing up Tom Cruise’s Maverick in “Top Gun.”
On television, he won the Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 1993 for playing Sheriff Jimmy Brock on CBS’s “Picket Fences,” which ran from 1992 to 1996. His breakout came earlier, in Robert Altman’s “M*A*S*H” (1970), where he played surgeon Duke Forrest.
“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 family’s statement said, as reported by CNN and USA Today.
Source: CNN
