Tom Skerritt, Emmy-winning actor from Top Gun, Alien and Picket Fences, dies at 93 Tom Skerritt, the Emmy-winning actor known for Top Gun, Alien and Picket Fences, died Wednesday of natural causes at 93, his family said. Tom Skerritt, the Emmy-winning actor who embodied a solid, wry authority figure in films such as Top Gun, Alien and on television's Picket Fences, has died. He was 93. Skerritt died Wednesday of natural causes, his family said in a statement. The family remembered him for his humor, curiosity, wisdom, generosity and the love he brought into their lives. They said he cared deeply about imagination, creativity, storytelling, service, veterans, the natural world and helping others find and share their own voices.Picket Fems Emmy Awards SuccessSkerritt was twice nominated for an Emmy, both for Picket Fences, and won outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 1993. Picket Fences was a comedy created by David E. Kelley that won 14 Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe over its four-year run from 1992 to 1996.Skerritt co-starred opposite Kathy Baker, who played his doctor wife in the community of Rome, Wisconsin, a place with bizarre happenings, like a robber leaving a trail of frogs or the pope becoming the primary witness to a murder. He told the A.V. Club in 2019 that it was written by the best writer on television, calling that the magic and brilliance of it.He said he was not trying to do a series, but when he heard Kathy Baker was going to do it, he thought she was fabulous. His other career highlights include playing the patient husband of Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point, Sally Field's husband in Steel Magnolias and a scheming opportunist who stands in the way of Jodie Foster's attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial life in Contact.On television, he also played William Walker on ABC's Brothers and Sisters, Jimmy Ford on TNT's Leverage and had the recurring character Evan Drake on Cheers. He starred in the Hallmark movie What the Deaf Man Heard, co-starring Matthew Modine, Judith Ivey and James Earl Jones. He also modeled for Guess jeans. Skerritt grew up in a middle-class Detroit family, his father a small businessman and his mother a housewife.Skerritt Military Service Acting CareerHe had two brothers; a sister died as a child. He spent four years in the U.S. Air Force, attended Wayne State University and then switched to the University of California, Los Angeles, to study filmmaking, inspired by a viewing of Citizen Kane. His performance in a Los Angeles theatre production of The Rainmaker led to his first film role, a supporting role as a sergeant in the 1962 scrappy, US$250,000 independent Korean War film War Hunt.That movie marked the debuts of Skerritt, Robert Redford, Sydney Pollack and Francis Ford Coppola. Redford and Skerritt were vying for the same lead role, with Redford winning out. Years later, Redford, by then directing, paid Skerritt back with compound interest in A River Runs Through It, handing him the role of the stern Rev. John Maclean, a minister whose governing passions were his faith and fly-fishing.The New York Times was impressed by his halting, thoughtful manner. Redford became a lifelong friend. I remember the deep connection we made with each other that matured into a level-headed friendship, Redford told the Seattle Times in 2007. His values were close to mine, and he kept his integrity.After War Hunt, Skerritt still struggled for screen time, landing a small role in M.A.S. H. and Thieves Like Us for Robert Altman, and doing a bit part as a motorcycle cop in Harold and Maude for Hal Ashby. Things changed with The Turning Point, which earned him a National Board of Review win.Alien Top Gun Iconic Film RolesThen came Alien, with Skerritt playing the beleaguered and doomed captain of the ship Nostromo, crouched in a dark, claustrophobic duct, hunting the alien with a sputtering flamethrower. He told the Seattle Times that what appealed to him in the script was that the lead actor disappeared and the woman becomes the hero. I really like that idea, he said. Things shifted again after that, including a memorable role as Tom Cruise's instructor in the landmark Top Gun.Gentlemen, you are the top one per cent of all Naval aviators. The elite. The best of the best. We'll make you better, he told the students.This school is about combat. There are no points for second place. Skerritt once told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1997 that a writer had described him as a character actor locked in a leading man's body, and he always loved that. He called it a nice compliment and said he had been able to walk the line between television and features.His initial dream of directing and writing was overtaken by a career in front of the camera, though he managed to direct and star in the 1997 television movie Divided by Hate. He told The Ottawa Citizen in 1992 that things happen, roles kept coming, and the years flew by. He said he had no regrets.Onstage, he was the narrator in Our Town at Seattle's Intiman Theatre in 2004 and made his Broadway debut in 2013 in an adaptation of John Grisham's A Time to Kill, in which The Associated Press wrote he nicely pulls off a charming disgraced and drunken lawyer. He is survived by his third wife, Julie Tokashiki, and five children.