Tom Skerritt, Who Played Viper in Top Gun, Dies at 93

Tom Skerritt, who played the flight instructor Viper in "Top Gun" and Captain Dallas in "Alien," died Wednesday, Oct. 21, of natural causes. He was 93.

His family announced the death in a statement the following day. "We are heartbroken by his loss," it read. "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. He cared deeply about imagination, creativity, storytelling, service, veterans, the natural world and helping others find and share their own voices."

Skerritt worked for more than six decades and piled up more than 170 screen credits, winning an Emmy and picking up Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations along the way. He was the mustache at the edge of the frame in a hundred American movies, the guy who told the hotshot to sit down.

Three roles most people can name on sight

In 1979 he played Captain Dallas in Ridley Scott's "Alien," sharing the Nostromo with Sigourney Weaver and not making it to the credits. Seven years later he was Cmdr. Mike "Viper" Metcalf in "Top Gun," the instructor assigned to a cocky Navy pilot played by Tom Cruise.

Television gave him the lead he never quite got in features. Skerritt starred as Sheriff Jimmy Brock on the CBS drama "Picket Fences," which ran from 1992 to 1996, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 1993. He was nominated twice, both times for that show.

He had a line about his own career that he liked repeating. "A writer once described me as a character actor locked in a leading man's body, and I've always loved that," he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1997. "It's a nice compliment. I've been able to walk the line between television and features."

Detroit, the Air Force, and a college play

Skerritt was born Aug. 25, 1933, in Detroit. His father ran a small business and his mother was a homemaker. He joined the U.S. Air Force straight out of high school and later attended the University of California, Los Angeles.

Acting was not the plan. "Being a blue-collar, middle-class guy from Detroit, I had transferred out to UCLA as an English major who was interested in directing," he told Film Comment in 2016. "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."

He was appearing in a Los Angeles stage production of "The Rainmaker" when he was discovered. That led to his film debut in the 1962 Korean War picture "War Hunt," a scrappy independent production that also gave Robert Redford his first major film role and Sydney Pollack his screen debut.

The 1970s put him everywhere at once

His breakout came eight years after his debut, in Robert Altman's 1970 satire "M*A*S*H," which was nominated for the best picture Oscar. He played one of the few characters who never made the jump to the long-running television version.

Hal Ashby cast him in "Harold and Maude" as a cop. He turned up as a Vietnam veteran in the Cheech and Chong stoner comedy "Up in Smoke", reunited with Altman for the crime drama "Thieves Like Us," appeared in the drive-in comedy "Big Bad Mama," and played the patient husband of Shirley MacLaine in the Oscar-nominated ballet drama "The Turning Point." His early TV work ran from "My Three Sons" to "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour."

He knew what Alien was while he was making it

Skerritt once called the making of "Alien" one of the most memorable things in his career. "I recognized we were making something extraordinary," he said.

He had a similar read on "Top Gun," which he shot in 1985 for release the next summer. "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," he told Fox News about the original.

The rest of that decade kept him busy in genres that had nothing to do with each other. He was a small-town sheriff in David Cronenberg's "The Dead Zone," a former astronaut in the sci-fi adventure "SpaceCamp," part of the horror sequel "Poltergeist III," and Drum Eatenton in 1989's "Steel Magnolias," where he played Sally Field's husband and Julia Roberts' father. He also had a run on "Cheers".

Julia Roberts and a TV wife remember him

Roberts posted a photo of the two of them on Instagram and called Skerritt "a shining light of a gentle man. RIP", followed by a broken heart emoji.

Kathy Baker, who played his wife on "Picket Fences," told People: "My heart is broken to hear of the passing of dear, lovely, loving, Tom." She said he taught her so much during their four years on the show.

A friendship that started on his first movie

Redford, who met Skerritt on "War Hunt" in 1962, stayed a friend for the rest of his life. "There was such a deep connection we made with each other that it matured into a level-headed friendship," Redford told the Seattle Times in 2007. "His values were close to mine, and he kept his integrity." Redford died in September 2025.

The two worked together again on "A River Runs Through It," with Redford directing and Skerritt playing the father. It became one of the roles people brought up to him most often, alongside the ones with spaceships and fighter jets.

Contact, Ted, and a final Western

In 1997 he played a scheming opportunist blocking Jodie Foster's attempt to reach extraterrestrial life in "Contact." The same decade brought "Singles," "Smoke Signals," "Poison Ivy" with Drew Barrymore and "The Other Sister" with Diane Keaton.

The 2000s sent him back to television in "Will & Grace," "The West Wing" and "Brothers & Sisters," with film roles opposite Bruce Willis in "Tears of the Sun" and Kate Beckinsale in "Whiteout." Younger audiences know him from "Ted." His last film role was in the Western drama "Broke".

Stage work came late and he took it seriously. He narrated "Our Town" at Seattle's Intiman Theatre in 2004 and made his Broadway debut in 2013, at 79, in an adaptation of John Grisham's "A Time to Kill." The Associated Press wrote that he "nicely pulls off a charming disgraced and drunken lawyer."

What he built in Seattle

Skerritt lived in the Pacific Northwest and spent years pushing independent film and theater there. He helped found TheFilmSchool in Seattle to back the next wave of filmmakers and storytellers.

In 2012 he co-founded the Red Badge Project, a nonprofit that gets veterans writing and telling their own stories. "Tom believed deeply in the power of storytelling," his family said.

The family statement closed on that idea. "Tom will be remembered not only for the characters he brought to life, but also for his belief that stories can help people heal, find purpose, and create change," it said. "His talent, integrity, curiosity, and compassion made a lasting impact on his family, his profession, and the many communities he worked to support."

Who survives him

Skerritt is survived by his third wife, Julie Tokashiki, whom he met on the set of "Picket Fences." He was previously married to Sue Oran for 15 years and to Charlotte Shanks for 15 years before that.

He leaves five children, Andy, Erin, Matt, Collin and Emiko; five grandchildren, Sara, Maddison, Sunny, Louisa and Georgia; and two great-grandchildren, Marigold and Ravi. The family asked for privacy and said it was grateful for the support coming from his friends, colleagues and fans. Information about a memorial will be shared later.