Tom Skerritt, Alien and Top Gun Star, Dies at 93

Tom Skerritt, the prolific American screen actor who starred in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece Alien and Robert Altman’s Korean War satire M*A*S*H, died Wednesday of natural causes at the age of 93.

Seven Decades on Screen

Born in Detroit on August 25, 1933, Thomas Roy Skerritt enlisted in the U.S. Air Force after graduating high school before studying at Wayne State University and the University of California, Los Angeles. His feature debut arrived in the 1962 Korean War drama War Hunt, starring John Saxon and Sydney Pollack. From there, he built a career spanning more than 100 screen credits that stretched into the final years of his life, concluding with a supporting role in the 2025 Western Broke starring Wyatt Russell.

Skerritt first broke through to mainstream audiences at age 37 in Robert Altman’s 1970 feature M*A*S*H, playing the surgeon Duke Forrest as third-billed behind Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould. Following a string of prominent 1970s roles—including a small turn as a motorcycle cop in 1971’s Harold and Maude—he secured his most enduring cinematic legacy in 1979’s Alien. Playing Dallas, captain of the doomed spaceship Nostromo, Skerritt held top billing above Sigourney Weaver before his character met a grim end at the hands of the Xenomorph.

Skerritt Earns Emmy for Picket Fences

During the 1980s, the recognizable mustache wearing star kept a consistent presence on film through notable supporting turns in Tony Scott’s blockbuster Top Gun, Herbert Ross’ Steel Magnolias, and David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone. He also led the horror sequel Poltergeist III. His prominent 1990s credits included A River Runs Through It, The Rookie, and Contact.

Television brought some of his highest critical accolades. In 1993, Skerritt won a Primetime Emmy Award for playing Sheriff Jimmy Brock in the CBS series Picket Fences, earning a second nomination the following year. Later on, the program claimed the Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series during both 1995 and 1996.

Activism and Legacy Beyond Hollywood

Away from film and television sets, Skerritt directed substantial energy toward education and veterans’ advocacy. He co-founded The Film School in Seattle to support rising filmmakers and established The Red Badge Project to help military veterans manage post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. Those efforts culminated in a TED Talk in 2016. He also advocated for river conservation through partnerships with the Wildlands Festival, American Rivers, and the Gallatin River Task Force.

“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,” his family said in a statement issued by his manager. “He cared deeply about imagination, creativity, storytelling, service, veterans, the natural world, and helping others find and share their own voices.”

Skerritt was married three times: to Charlotte Shanks from 1957 until their 1972 divorce, to Sue Oran from 1977 to 1992, and to Julie Tokashiki from 1998 until his death. He is survived by Julie, his children Andy, Erin Matt, Collin, and Emiko, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

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