Tom Skerritt, the steady, weathered everyman of Alien, Top Gun and A River Runs Through It, died on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, in Seattle. He was 93. His family said he died of natural causes.
From Detroit to Hollywood
Skerritt was born in Detroit on August 25, 1933, and served in the US Air Force before turning to acting. After years of television work he broke through in Robert Altman’s MASH (1970), the start of a long career playing dependable men in extraordinary situations.
Alien, Top Gun and Steel Magnolias
In Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) he was Captain Dallas, the commander of the doomed Nostromo. In Top Gun (1986) he played Viper, the commanding officer of the Navy’s elite flight school, and in Steel Magnolias (1989) he was Drum Eatenton, the father of Julia Roberts’s character. Robert Redford cast him as the stern Presbyterian minister and fly-fishing father in A River Runs Through It (1992).
Picket Fences and an Emmy
On television he led David E. Kelley’s CBS drama Picket Fences from 1992 to 1996 as Jimmy Brock, the sheriff of a small Wisconsin town, a role that won him the Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series.
He is survived by his wife, Julie Tokashiki, five children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His family said details of a memorial would be shared later.