Tom Skerritt

Born in Detroit on Aug. 25, 1933, Tom Skerritt was discovered as a student at UCLA and made his feature film debut alongside fellow newcomer Robert Redford in War Hunt (1962).

He eventually stood out in Robert Altman's MASH (1970) and made another memorable turn as Shirley MacLaine's husband in The Turning Point (1977), a role that led to parts in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone (1983) and Tony Scott's Top Gun (1986). The 1990s brought a plum role in A River Runs Through It (1992), an Emmy-winning run as a small-town sheriff in television's "Picket Fences" (1992-96) and another brush with aliens in Contact (1997).

Other work includes Tears of the Sun (2003) with Bruce Willis and Monica Bellucci, the television movie Vinegar Hill (2005) with Mary-Louise Parker and the miniseries "The Grid" (2004) with Dylan McDermott and Julianna Margulies.

Filmography