Veteran actor Tom Skerritt, best known for his roles in the television series Picket Fences and films such as MASH, Alien, Top Gun, died on Wednesday at the age of 93.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Skerritt passed away in Seattle from natural causes, his family announced.
“We are heartbroken by his loss. 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. He cared deeply about imagination, creativity, storytelling, service, veterans, the natural world and helping others find and share their own voices,” a member of the family said.
With his rugged looks and signature bristly moustache, Skerritt projected a strong masculine presence throughout his six-decade career, frequently portraying authoritative figures. Among these roles was the iconic lawman Will Kane in TBS’ 2000 remake of High Noon.
Skerritt played Shirley MacLaine’s husband in the 1977 film The Turning Point, which received 11 Oscar nominations. He later appeared as Mike “Viper” Metcalf, Tom Cruise’s Air Force instructor, in Top Gun (1986), and portrayed a minister and the head of the MacLean family in Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It (1992).
Skerritt’s breakthrough role came in Robert Altman’s 1970 film M*A*S*H, in which he played Southern surgeon Duke Forrest. In the opening scene, Forrest and fellow surgeon Hawkeye Pierce, played by Donald Sutherland, steal a jeep to reach the mobile army hospital where they are assigned to treat wounded American soldiers during the Korean War.
At the hospital, the duo team up with Trapper John McIntyre, portrayed by Elliott Gould, as they challenge military rules and regulations that interfere with their drinking and pursuit of women.
His extensive filmography also featured roles in Savage Harvest (1981), The Dead Zone (1983), SpaceCamp (1986), Steel Magnolias (1989), Maid to Order (1987), The Rookie (1990), Contact (1997), The Other Sister (1999), Tears of the Sun (2003), Bonneville (2006), Redemption Road (2010), A Hologram for the King (2016) and Day of Days (2017).
Skerritt is survived by his wife, Julie Tokashiki, whom he married in 1998, his five children, Andy, Erin, Matt, Collin and Emiko, five grandchildren, Sara, Maddison, Sunny, Louisa and Georgia, and two great-grandchildren, Marigold and Ravi.