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

Actor Tom Skerritt, whose six-decade career included Alien, Top Gun and the television series Picket Fences, has died at 93. His family said he died of natural causes on Wednesday, October 21. The family announced his death in a statement, describing Skerritt as a husband, father and grandfather who cared about storytelling, service, veterans and the natural world. The reported date and cause come from that family announcement. Skerritt was known for playing authority figures across film and television. In Ridley Scott’s 1979 science-fiction film Alien, he portrayed Dallas, captain of the spacecraft Nostromo. In Top Gun, released in 1986, he played flight instructor Mike “Viper” Metcalf. He later starred as Sheriff Jimmy Brock in Picket Fences, which ran on CBS for four seasons beginning in 1992. His role as surgeon Duke Forrest in Robert Altman’s MASH, released in 1970, brought him wider attention. The antiwar comedy was among the year’s popular films, and Skerritt later worked with Altman on Thieves Like Us. Other notable film roles included a minister and family patriarch in A River Runs Through It and appearances in The Turning Point, Steel Magnolias and The Dead Zone. For...