Obituaries
Actor Tom Skerritt, who played dads, cops and commanding officers, has died
Actor Tom Skerritt, pictured above in 2018, has died.
Chris Delmas/AFP
There’s no avoiding the word rugged with Tom Skerritt. There was the mustache, the jaw, the crinkly eyes, and the cool authoritarian bearing he brought to memorable roles as commanding officers, dads and cops.
Skerritt died of natural causes on Wednesday, according to a statement from a representative. He was 93 years old.
He was Captain Dallas inAlien. Viper in Top Gun. An enlistee in the original movie M*A*S*H (playing one of the few characters who didn’t transition to the later television series.) A Vietnam vet in the Cheech and Chong stoner classic, Up In Smoke. He played small town sheriffs in the movie The Dead Zoneand on the TV series Picket Fences, for which he won an Emmy in 1993.
Movie Interviews
Tom Skerritt Grapples With His Own Death In ‘East Of The Mountains’
- Download
- Embed
<iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1040669131/1040669132" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> - Transcript
And he was a dad inIce Castles, Steel Magnolias and A River Runs Through It.
Skerritt described himself as a blue-collar kid from Detroit who served in the Air Force before attending UCLA and turning to theater. He spent his early days in Hollywood appearing in television shows, from My Three Sons toThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and hanging out with the likes of Robert Redford and director Hal Ashby, who cast Skerritt in Harold and Maude(as a cop, of course).
In real life, Skerritt promoted independent film and theater in the Pacific Northwest, where he lived. He co-founded The Red Badge Project, a program for veterans to take storytelling courses and share their experiences.
NPR does not offer or accept money for coverage or interviews.
Anyone who makes such an offer or request is not an NPR employee and does not represent NPR.
- Top Gun
