The American actor, whose steady screen presence spanned six decades, died of natural causes, his family has confirmed.
Tom Skerritt, the American actor whose calm, fatherly screen presence ran through films such as "Alien", "Top Gun" and "Steel Magnolias", has died at the age of 93.
His family said he died on Wednesday of natural causes, in a statement released through his publicist, Susan Madore, as reported by The Ghana Report.
"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 said.
A career built over six decades
Skerritt's screen credits stretch back to the early 1960s. He started out largely in Westerns before his breakthrough as surgeon Duke Forrest in Robert Altman's 1970 hit "MAS*H". Television work followed in the 1970s, including appearances on "Bonanza" and "Gunsmoke", alongside a role in the 1977 film "The Turning Point".
His range widened considerably in 1979, when Ridley Scott cast him as Captain Dallas in "Alien", the science fiction horror film in which Sigourney Weaver's Ripley confronts a deadly creature aboard a commercial spacecraft.
In the 1980s he appeared in "The Dead Zone" and then "Top Gun", playing Viper, the senior instructor who is initially unimpressed by Tom Cruise's Maverick before becoming his mentor. He also had a run of episodes on the comedy "Cheers".
In 1989 he played the husband of Sally Field's character and father to Julia Roberts' Shelby in "Steel Magnolias".
An Emmy for 'Picket Fences'
Skerritt's best-known television work came with "Picket Fences", the darkly comic CBS drama created by David E. Kelley, which ran from 1992 to 1996. He played an ageing small-town sheriff and won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actor for the role.
The 1990s also brought "A River Runs Through It", directed by Robert Redford, in which Skerritt played a reverend, and the thriller "Poison Ivy" with Drew Barrymore.
He kept working into the 2000s and beyond, with appearances in "Brothers & Sisters", "Will & Grace", and the films "Ted" and "A Hologram for the King". His final credit was the 2025 film "Broke".
Shyness, storytelling and veterans
Skerritt said in 2020 that a screening of "Citizen Kane" while he was a student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) shaped his ambition. He described himself as "basically shy" and said acting offered a way to step outside himself.
Beyond the screen, he co-founded the Red Badge Project, which helps military veterans deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression through writing and sharing their stories. He also helped create "Reflections of the River", a documentary series on protecting American rivers, inspired in part by his time filming "A River Runs Through It".
He is survived by his wife, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.