Tom Skerritt, who won an Emmy Award in his role as a small-town sheriff on “Picket Fences,” and whose diverse film career included roles on “Top Gun,” “Alien” and “M*A*S*H,” died on Wednesday, his family said. He was 93.
Skerritt died in Seattle of natural causes, his family said in a statement.
“ We are heartbroken by his loss,” the family 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.”
Skerritt won an Emmy in 1993 for best lead actor in a drama series for his portrayal of Jimmy Brock, the sheriff of Rome, Wisconsin, on the quirky television series “Picket Fences” from 1992 to 1996, The New York Times reported.
He was also nominated for the same role in 1994, according to Variety.
Skerritt’s roles were a spectrum of different characters, the Times reported.
In “Top Gun,” Skerritt played Mike “Viper” Metcalf, a hard-nosed flight instructor. He was a reluctant hero in “Alien” as a spaceship captain, and in the film version of “M*A*S*H” he played the martini-swilling Army surgeon, Duke Forrest, according to the newspaper.
Skerritt also played Shirley MacLaine’s husband in the 1977 film “The Turning Point” and was the stern Presbyterian minister and patriarch of the MacLean family in 1992’s “A River Runs Through It,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Thomas Roy Skerritt was born on Aug. 25, 1933, in Detroit, the Times reported.
He spent four years in the Air Force and then attended Wayne State University as an English major, according to the newspaper. He later became interested in film and moved to California, transferring to UCLA.
In his last semester, he was cast in the Korean War combat movie “War Hunt” (1962), the Times reported. He found roles on television, with appearances on “The Virginian,” “Death Valley Days,” “12 O’Clock High” and “Combat!”
“Years ago, someone said that I was a character actor locked in a leading man’s body,” Skerritt told People in a 1993 interview, according to the Times. “I thought that was a wonderful compliment.”