Tom Skerritt

Tom Skerritt, born on August 25, 1933, in Detroit, Michigan, has worked in film and television for more than six decades. He studied at Wayne State University and UCLA before establishing himself as an actor. His film debut came in *War Hunt* (1962), a Korean War drama that also featured Robert Redford.

Skerritt became familiar to movie audiences through sharply different roles. In Robert Altman’s *M*A*S*H* (1970), he played Duke Forrest, one of the surgeons whose irreverence defines the film’s field hospital. In Ridley Scott’s *Alien* (1979), he was Dallas, captain of the commercial spaceship Nostromo. Dallas leads the crew’s investigation of a distress signal and later enters the ship’s air ducts in an attempt to find the creature stalking them.

He played Wayne Rodgers in *The Turning Point* (1977), a drama about ballet and the competing paths taken by two former dancers. In David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Stephen King’s *The Dead Zone* (1983), Skerritt appeared as Sheriff George Bannerman. Another of his best-known roles was Commander Mike “Viper” Metcalf, an instructor at the Navy’s fighter-weapons school, in *Top Gun* (1986). In *Steel Magnolias* (1989), he played Drum Eatenton, the husband of Sally Field’s character. He portrayed the Reverend John Maclean, father of the two brothers at the center of *A River Runs Through It* (1992), and appeared as scientist David Drumlin in *Contact* (1997).

Television gave Skerritt one of his defining parts: Sheriff Jimmy Brock in *Picket Fences*. The CBS series, created by David E. Kelley, ran from 1992 to 1996 and followed the Brock family and the often unusual cases arising in the fictional town of Rome, Wisconsin. Kathy Baker played Jimmy’s wife, Dr. Jill Brock. Skerritt won the 1993 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his performance.

Skerritt’s later work includes a leading role in the 2021 film *East of the Mountains*, adapted from David Guterson’s novel. He plays Ben Givens, a retired surgeon who travels into Washington State’s mountains after receiving a terminal diagnosis. The role draws on the quiet authority Skerritt brought to characters as different as a spaceship captain, a naval instructor and a small-town sheriff. Away from acting, he has been involved with TheFilmSchool, a Seattle-based program devoted to teaching screenwriting and storytelling.