Tom Skerritt, the American actor with over 170 credits to his name but who sci-fi fans best know as Dallas from the original Alien, has died. The Hollywood Reporter brings word his passing, with Skerritt’s family confirming the news and revealing he died of natural causes on Wednesday, October 21. He was 93.
Skerritt got his start in acting on the stage, but quickly transitioned to film and TV in the early days. After making his debut in the 1962 Robert Redford movie, War Hunt, he would go on to appear in other war stories as well, including TV shows like Combat!, The Virginian, 12 O’Clock High, plus classics like Gunsmoke and The Fugitive. His most famous role in the genre, though, and the one that would propel him to stardom, is as “Duke” in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H. Having served in the United States Air Force, Skerritt likely brought a thing or two to the production that gave it a hint of authenticity. Though his character didn’t appear in the TV Series follow-up to the film, references to Skerritt’s Duke were made later in its run.
In Alien, Skerritt’s Dallas is the captain of the Nostromo and is perhaps has the second most amount of screen time in the film to Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley. His stalwart determination proves to be the kind of authority needed by the crew when it becomes clear that they’re dealing with deadly consequences, especially after the reveal of Ash as a synthetic. Skerritt’s performance is one of the best in the movie, and his character’s end is also one if its most iconic scares. Thirty-five years after first playing the role, Skerritt would reprise the part of Dallas for the Alien: Isolation DLC campaign, which allowed fans to play as Dallas in an alternate version of the original movie’s events.
Speaking with RogerEbert.com in an interview for the 40th anniversary of Alien a few years ago, Skerritt reflected on his casting in the film. Skerritt revealed that when he learned the film was a $2 million movie about an alien, he was worried it might become something like an Ed Wood picture. He revealed that before he signed on, though, he saw a film that blew him away called The Duelists, the first feature from Ridley Scott.
“I just thought that I needed to remember this guy’s name because he was so good and this was just his first film,” Skerritt said. “I didn’t know who he was except that he was one hell of a director. A couple of weeks later, after I kinda told them that I was sure if I wanted to do this, I got a call from the producers telling me that it now had a $10 million dollar budget and it had this director named Ridley Scott and I agreed on that basis.”
Even though Alien marked the seventeenth movie that Skerritt had to his name (including the likes of Harold and Muade and Up in Smoke) it was far from his last. In the years that followed, he would go on to appear in the Stephen King adaptation The Dead Zone, plus take on the role of “Viper” in the original Top Gun, the instructor who was close to Maverick’s father. Skerritt’s final credit is the 2025 western film Broke, where he shared the screen with Wyatt Russell and Dennis Quaid.
