Tom Skerritt, the Detroit-born actor from ‘Alien,’ ‘Top Gun’ and ‘Picket Fences,’ has died at 93

DETROIT — Tom Skerritt, the Detroit-born actor whose calm, mustached authority anchored roles in “Alien,” “Top Gun,” “M*A*S*H” and television’s “Picket Fences,” died Wednesday, Oct. 21, at his home in Seattle. He was 93.

Skerritt died of natural causes, NPR reported, citing a statement from a representative. In a statement released Thursday and quoted by The Seattle Times, his family said: “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 asked for privacy. Neither report mentioned memorial plans.

A Detroit start. Skerritt was born in Detroit on Aug. 25, 1933, and graduated from the city’s Mackenzie High School in 1951, MLive reported. He joined the U.S. Air Force right after graduation and served four years, most of it in Texas, before coming home to Detroit and taking classes at Henry Ford College and Wayne State University. He later moved to California to pursue acting. NPR noted that he described himself as a blue-collar kid from Detroit.

He kept the city close. At a 2014 fan convention in Arizona, pictured above, he took the lectern in a Detroit Tigers cap with the Old English D.

The roles. Skerritt’s first film was the 1962 war drama “War Hunt,” alongside Robert Redford and Sydney Pollack, according to The Seattle Times. His breakthrough came as Capt. Duke Forrest in Robert Altman’s 1970 film “M*A*S*H.” Director Hal Ashby cast him as a cop in “Harold and Maude,” NPR said.

He was Capt. Dallas, the doomed commander in 1979’s “Alien,” and Viper, the flight instructor who faces off with Tom Cruise’s Maverick, in 1986’s “Top Gun.” He played fathers in “Ice Castles,” “Steel Magnolias” and “A River Runs Through It,” and small-town sheriffs in “The Dead Zone” and on television’s “Picket Fences,” which won him the 1993 Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series.

A veteran who helped veterans. After settling in Seattle, Skerritt co-founded TheFilmSchool, which ran from 2004 to 2019, and in 2012 co-founded The Red Badge Project, which helps veterans returning from war tell their stories through writing, The Seattle Times reported. The program was personal for the Air Force veteran. He got his first leading film role late in life, as a Seattle doctor in the 2021 drama “East of the Mountains.”

Skerritt is survived by his wife, Julie Tokashiki; his children Andy, Erin, Matt, Collin and Emiko; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren, according to The Seattle Times.

Sources:
NPR, “Actor Tom Skerritt, who played dads, cops and commanding officers, has died,” Oct. 22, 2026 (cause of death per representative, roles, Emmy, Detroit description), https://www.npr.org/2026/10/22/981035400/tom-skerritt-dead
The Seattle Times, “Tom Skerritt, star of ‘Alien’ and familiar face at SIFF, dies at 93,” Oct. 22, 2026 (death at home, family statement, first film, TheFilmSchool, Red Badge Project, survivors), https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/movies/tom-skerritt-star-of-alien-and-familiar-face-at-siff-dies-at-93/
MLive, “Award-winning actor, Detroit native, dead at 93,” Oct. 2026 (birth date, Mackenzie High School, Air Force, Henry Ford College and Wayne State), https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2026/10/award-winning-actor-detroit-native-dead-at-93.html
Photo: Gage Skidmore, “Tom Skerritt 2014.jpg,” Dec. 14, 2014 upload of a 2014 Phoenix Comicon Fan Fest photo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/), cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tom_Skerritt_2014.jpg

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Tags: Detroit · Tom Skerritt · Obituaries · Movies · Air Force Veterans · Mackenzie High School