Tom Skerritt as Captain Dallas in Alien, 1979. Photograph: 20th Century Fox/Allstar View image in fullscreen Tom Skerritt as Captain Dallas in Alien, 1979. Photograph: 20th Century Fox/Allstar Film Obituary Tom Skerritt obituary US actor who often played authority figures and was admired for his film roles in Alien, Top Gun and A River Runs Through It
Prefer the Guardian on Google The lean, rugged US actor Tom Skerritt, who has died aged 93, was described by one screenwriter as “a character actor trapped in a leading man’s body”. He took significant roles as authority figures in the films Alien, Top Gun and A River Runs Through It before landing star billing in the 1990s TV family drama Picket Fences, as a sheriff trying to keep the peace in a rural Wisconsin town plagued by violent – and bizarre – crimes.
Skerritt’s breakthrough had come in the 1970 film MAS*H , directed by Robert Altman . He played Augustus “Duke” Forrest, a US army surgeon in the Korean war exuding southern charm at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Along with his fellow surgeons, Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce ( played by Donald Sutherland ) and “Trapper” John McIntyre (Elliott Gould), Duke displayed cynicism and irreverence towards his superiors.
But Skerritt’s character was not transferred to the TV series that followed. While some sources reported that the actor had no faith in the film working as a half-hour sitcom, the writer Larry Gelbart , who adapted the novel for the small screen with Gene Reynolds, explained they wanted characters they felt could generate storylines, adding: “Trapper John just seemed more colourful than Duke.”
Skerritt remained prolific in character roles in films and on TV until coming to worldwide attention as the doomed Captain Dallas, in charge of the commercial space tug Nostromo, in the sci-fi horror movie Alien (1979), which made a star of Sigourney Weaver.
View image in fullscreen Tom Skerritt as a father trying to bond with his sons in A River Runs Through It, 1992. Photograph: Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock He initially turned down the role, but changed his mind when he heard that it was to be directed by Ridley Scott, whose debut film, the Napoleonic wars drama The Duellists (1977), he regarded as a “classic … a painting from beginning to end”.
Skerritt appeared alongside another actor reaching star status, Tom Cruise, in Top Gun (1986), directed by Ridley’s brother Tony Scott . He played Mike “Viper” Metcalf, mentoring the fighter pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) in the elite US navy school.
His own slow-burn rise to stardom was boosted by his part in A River Runs Through It (1992) as the Presbyterian minister who finds a bond with his sons (Craig Sheffer and Brad Pitt) through fly-fishing. It provoked the Hollywood Reporter to observe that “he has one of his richest roles in years as their emotionally cut-off father”.
The film, directed by Robert Redford , came out at the same time as Picket Fences (1992-96) was launched. This time, Skerritt was playing a warm, loving father, Jimmy Brock, a small-town sheriff married to Jill (Kathy Baker), a psychiatrist, with three children, in Rome, Wisconsin. “We’re the ones with whom the audience might most relate to – because all these other folks are crazy!” he said.
The quirky and daring storylines included cows’ udders exploding, animal sacrifice and date rape and tackled taboo subjects such as euthanasia, abortion, incest and homophobia – groundbreaking for…