Tom Skerritt, Emmy-Winning Actor Known for “Top Gun” and “Picket Fences”, Dies at 93

Deirdre Durkan, Jill MenzeThu, October 22, 2026 at 7:03 PM UTC

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Tom Skerritt, the film and TV star known for playing Sheriff Jimmy Brock on the David E. Kelley series Picket Fences, has died. He was 93.

The Emmy-winning actor died of natural causes on Wednesday, Oct. 21, his family confirmed in a statement to PEOPLE.

Tom SkerrittCredit: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

“Our family is deeply saddened to share that Tom Skerritt passed away on October 21, 2026, from natural causes,” his family said. “He was a loving husband to Julie; father to Andy, Erin, Matt, Colin, and Emiko; grandfather to Sara, Maddison, Sunny, Louisa, and Georgia; and great-grandfather to Marigold and Ravi. We are heartbroken by his loss.”

“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 statement continued.

TOP GUN, Tom Skerritt, 1986Credit: Paramount/courtesy Everett

His family also remembered his passion for “imagination, creativity, storytelling, service, veterans, the natural world, and helping others find and share their own voices.”

“We are incredibly grateful for the love and support being shown by his friends, colleagues, and fans,” the statement concluded. “We ask for privacy as our family grieves. Information regarding a memorial will be shared at a later date.”

Born on Aug. 25, 1933, in Detroit, Skerritt was raised by his father, Roy, a small-business owner, and mother, Helen, a homemaker. After graduating from David Mackenzie High School in 1951, Skerritt joined the U.S. Air Force and served as a classification specialist.

“There were four or five of us who were having a few beers one night — we must have been 17, just got out of high school — we didn’t know what we were going to do; we were not ready to go to college,” Skerritt told Film Comment in 2016. “We just had a couple of beers and thought, ‘We want to travel, we don’t have any money, and we want to get away from here.” And we enlisted the following day, four of us, I think, enlisted at the same time. It was a four-year term.”

With the aid of the G.I. Bill, he attended Henry Ford College and Wayne State University before transferring to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

“Being a blue-collar, middle-class guy from Detroit, I had transferred out to UCLA as an English major who was interested in directing,” Skerritt told the publication. “I had done a little theater as an actor, only to overcome being shy and self-conscious, and never intended or thought I could make a living as an actor.”

Tom Skerritt arrives at the premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures’ “The 15:17 to Paris” in 2018Credit: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty

While performing in a UCLA production of The Rainmaker, Skerritt was discovered and made his film debut in 1962’s War Hunt, alongside Robert Redford and Sydney Pollack. No stranger to Westerns and military-themed films and series, Skerritt also appeared on ABC’s WWII drama Combat! and NBC’s The Virginian that same year.

After leaving UCLA, Skerritt was mentored by director Robert Altman, who cast the actor in his breakthrough role in the 1970 film M*A*S*H. The war comedy spawned the eponymous CBS series in 1972 and significantly influenced Skerritt’s acting career. He also had the distinction of playing five different characters on five episodes of Gunsmoke between 1965 and 1972.

“If not for [Altman], I don’t think I would be in the business,” Skerritt told Film Talk in June 2020, noting that director Hal Ashby was another early mentor.

Tom Skerritt in a scene from the movie ‘Alien’, 1979Credit: Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty

Skerritt continued to find success in supporting roles, specifically in the 1974 films Thieves Like Us and Big Bad Mama and 1977’s The Turning Point. However, his star-making turn as Nostromo captain Dallas in 1979’s Alien landed him top billing in Hollywood.

He told The A.V. Club in 2019 that making Alien was “one of the most memorable things” in his career, adding that he recognized they were “making something extraordinary” with the Ridley Scott film.

As to joining a cast of veteran actors and newcomers like Sigourney [Weaver], Skerritt explained to IGN in 2019, “Thinking in terms of whether it matters whether you played first fiddler or second fiddle, it’s nice to be in a great orchestra.”

Tom Skerritt in “Category 7: The End of the World.”Credit: CBS/Getty

Skerritt ushered in the ‘80s with a steady stream of small-screen appearances, including Ryan’s Four, The Twilight Zone and Cheers, before scoring 1986’s Top Gun and 1988’s Poltergeist III. Top Gun featured Skerritt as Commander Mike “Viper” Metcalf, with Tom Cruise, Tim Robbins, Kelly McGillis and Val Kilmer rounding out the cast of the blockbuster film.

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“Everybody was having a good time on this. We all knew, or maybe I just sensed it, that this was going to be a very successful film,” Skerritt told Fox News Digital in 2022 of the original Top Gun.

Skerritt then charmed audiences as Drum Eatenton — father, husband and Ouiser Boudreaux’s (Shirley MacLaine) frenemy — in the classic 1989 movie Steel Magnolias, starring Sally Field, Julia Roberts and Dolly Parton. The Southern dramedy reunited Skerritt and his former Turning Point costar, MacLaine.

“Being with very strong-willed, strong-minded women, I learned to just keep my place,” the veteran actor told Closer Weekly in 2020. “Each of us were renting a house in Louisiana, and each one [hosted] dinner on a Saturday night. I’d just go listen to them talk, and it was quite wonderful to be around strong women.”

Tom Skerritt as Sheriff Jimmy Brock in “Picket Fences”Credit: CBS/Getty

He went on to secure roles in the 1992 films Poison Ivy and the screen adaptation of A River Runs Through It, reuniting with Redford, who directed the Oscar-winning indie.

“I suppose the one that moves me most was A River Runs Through It, playing the reverend,” Skerritt revealed to Closer Weekly of his favorite role. “That’s an exquisite-looking film, and it’s so American and quite moving. I don’t see every film that I’ve done, but that one I’ve seen multiple times. And every time, it just moves me on a different, deeper level. What counts is the movie, not the role so much.”

Following his success on the big screen, Skerritt returned to form in one of his most memorable performances as a small town sheriff on the hit CBS series Picket Fences, which earned him an Emmy Award in 1993 for outstanding lead actor.

“That was extraordinary,” he told The A.V. Club of the show, episodes of which Skerritt also directed. “It was written by the best writer on television. That was the magic and brilliance of it.”

Tom Skerritt and Kathy Baker during 1993 Emmy AwardsCredit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Skerritt revealed to Film Comment that he wasn’t aiming to work in television at that time, telling the outlet, “But I read the thing, and I thought, whoa, this is different, and then Kathy Baker was going to do it, whose work I really love, and I met with David [E. Kelley] and Kathy, and we all agreed we had to work at top level.”

In addition to his Emmy win for Picket Fences, Skerritt was nominated back-to-back for two Golden Globes in 1994 and 1995, as well as two Screen Actors Guild Awards in 1995 and 1996.

Upon cancellation of the acclaimed series, Skerritt kept busy with films like The Other Sister (1999), Tears of the Sun (2003), Whiteout (2009), Field of Lost Shoes (2014) and East of the Mountains (2021). He also appeared on Huff, Brothers & Sisters and The Good Wife, cementing his status as one of the most prolific actors with over 150 credits throughout his career.

Skerritt told We Are the Mighty in 2020 that he felt “a great sense of gratitude and appreciation and good fortune” for the breadth of films and shows.

Tom Skerritt with his wife Julie Tokashiki attend the IWC Schaffhausen Top Gun Gala Event in 2012Credit: Andreas Rentz/Getty

“I don’t think many people in the business I am in have not had that overreaching of two or three decades of extraordinary projects,” he said.

Skerritt was previously married to Charlotte Shanks from 1957 to 1972, with whom he had three children: Andy, Erin and Matt. He also welcomed son Colin with his ex-wife, Sue Oran, whom he divorced in 1992 after 15 years of marriage. Skerritt wed his third wife, film and TV executive Julie Tokashiki, in 1998. The two met on the set of Picket Fences and shared adopted daughter, Emiko.

He described his wife Tokashiki to Closer Weekly as “strong and lovable,” saying, “Whatever differences we have, and there are some — there [are] a few years between us, age-wise — I look at her with a great deal of respect and marvel at who she is. She’s just a great piece of art.”

In 2020, Skerritt and Tokashiki founded the film company Triple Squirrels, which aims to “deliver the best visual storytelling possible in times when blockbuster movies lack originality in storytelling and are shackled by unforgiving budgets,” according to the official website.

He also co-founded the Red Badge Project in 2012 to help veterans heal from the effects of PTSD through storytelling, as he explained to Fox News Digital, “there’s wonderful therapy about being able to write a story, whether it’s true or whether it’s recovering from some very bad moments that they had.”

Skerritt is survived by his wife, Julie Tokashiki; his five children, Andy, Erin, Matt, Colin and Emiko; five grandchildren, Sara, Maddison, Sunny, Louisa and Georgia; and two great-grandchildren, Marigold and Ravi.

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