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Actor · Director

1933-08-25 · Detroit, Michigan, USA · Male

47 series in the catalog

Thomas Roy Skerritt (born August 25, 1933) is an American actor and director, who has appeared in over 170 film and television productions since 1962. The beginning of his film career coincided with the New Hollywood movement, with a breakthrough role as Duke Forrest in Robert Altman's M*A*S*H (1970). He then starred in notable films like The Turning Point (1977), Up in Smoke, Ice Castles (both 1978), Alien (1979), The Dead Zone (1983), Top Gun (1986), and A River Runs Through It (1992).

On television, Skerritt played the leading role of Sheriff Jimmy Brock on the family drama Picket Fences (1992–1996), earning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, as well as two Golden Globe Award nominations. He also had a recurring role as Evan Drake on the sixth season of sitcom Cheers (1987–1988).

Skerritt is also a three-time Screen Actors Guild Award nominee, a Genie Award nominee, an American Television Award nominee, and is both a Saturn Award and Western Heritage Award winner. In 2022, he received the International Press Academy's honorary Mary Pickford Award for "Outstanding Artistic Contribution to the Entertainment Industry."

Early life

Skerritt was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Helen, a homemaker, and Roy Skerritt, a businessman. He is the youngest of three children. A 1951 graduate of Detroit's Mackenzie High School, Skerritt enlisted just after graduating from high school, serving a four-year tour of duty in the United States Air Force as a classifications specialist. Most of his enlistment was spent at Bergstrom Field, Austin, Texas.

After his service, Skerritt attended Henry Ford College and Wayne State University before entering the University of California, Los Angeles. He had initial interests in majoring in English but veered towards directing. It was his appearance in a production of The Rainmaker that got Skerritt noticed to act in his first feature film. He left UCLA without a degree to pursue an acting career.

Career

Skerritt made his film debut in War Hunt, produced by Terry Sanders and released in 1962. Skerritt's notable film appearances include M*A*S*H (1970), Harold and Maude (credited as "M. Borman", 1971), Fuzz, Big Bad Mama, Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke (1978), Ice Castles (1978), as Captain Dallas in Alien (1979), as a would-be astronaut in Contact (1997) and SpaceCamp (1986), and in Top Gun (1986) as Commander Mike "Viper" Metcalf. In 1988, he starred with Nancy Allen and Lara Flynn Boyle in Poltergeist III. In 1989, he played the role of Thomas Drummond "Drum" Eatenton in Steel Magnolias. In 1992, he appeared in the critically-acclaimed Robert Redford-directed film A River Runs Through It, playing a fly fishing-loving minister and father of the two protagonist brothers in the film.

Skerritt played a guest part in Ray Walston's show My Favorite Martian in the 1963 episode "Mrs. Jekyll and Hyde" (Walston was a regular cast member thirty years later in Skerritt's show Picket Fences). He also guest-starred in the television series The Real McCoys (1963), as a letter carrier in the episode "Aunt Win Steps In". He was cast in Bonanza in 1964 and in Death Valley Days in 1965, as a young gambler, Patrick Hogan, who meets a tragic fate after winning a small fortune in a saloon. In another Death Valley Days episode, "A Sense of Justice" (1966), he played a young Roy Bean with his elder brother, Joshua Bean, played by Tris Coffin. In a later Death Valley Days role, Skerritt played Mark Twain in the 1968 episode "Ten Day Millionaires", with Dabney Coleman as Twain's mining partner, Calvin H. Higby. The two lose a fortune in gold, but Twain learns his future is in writing. In 1972, Skerritt guest-starred in an episode of Cannon, titled "Nobody Beats the House", playing the role of a young gambler. In 1975, he guest-starred in another episode of Cannon titled "The Conspirators", playing the role of a corrupt sheriff.

His agent, Meyer Mishkin, recounted in a 1978 Los Angeles Times profile that Skerritt was relegated to a series of obscure European westerns after his early 1970s film success. Mishkin took credit for obtaining for Skerritt his co-starring role in The Turning Point (1977), effectively salvaging his career, and earning him a Best Supporting Actor National Board of Review Award in the process.

Skerritt appeared in the ABC series Twelve O'Clock High (1964–1967, five episodes); Gunsmoke (1965–1972, also five episodes), and as Evan Drake on Cheers. He then appeared in CBS's Picket Fences (1992–1996), in the role of Sheriff Jimmy Brock, for which he won an Emmy Award.

He portrayed the deceased William Walker in Brothers & Sisters, having appeared in the pilot and several flashbacks scenes. This was his second time playing the husband of a character played by Sally Field; the first was in Steel Magnolias.

He played the role of Ezekiel in ABC Family's miniseries Fallen alongside Paul Wesley. He also appeared as the guide on the showcase website for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. He lent his voice in the video game Gun (2005), in which he voices Clay Allison. He then guest-starred in seasons three and four of Leverage as Nate Ford's father.

In February 2012, Skerritt played the title role in Pacific Northwest Ballet's production of Don Quixote. In 2014, Skerritt was reunited with his ex-Picket Fences co-star, Lauren Holly, to star with her in Field of Lost Shoes. He was reunited with his Alien co-star Harry Dean Stanton in Lucky, the latter's last film (2017).

In 1974, Skerritt portrayed Senator Robert Palmer in "The Devil's Platform", episode 7 of Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

Personal life

Skerritt is founder and chairman of Heyou Media, a Seattle-based digital media company.

From 1957 to 1972, Skerritt was married to Charlotte Shanks, with whom he has three children. He was married to Sue Oran, with whom he has a son, from 1977 to 1992. Since 1996, he has been married to Julie Tokashiki. They have one daughter.

Tom Skerritt at the TCM Movie Database (archived)