Bloody Disgusting is deeply saddened to learn that actor Tom Skerritt, best known among horror fans as Captain Dallas of the Nostromo in Ridley Scott’s Alien, has passed away of natural causes at the age of 93.
Thomas Roy Skerritt was born in Detroit and attended Wayne State University and UCLA, and served for a period in the United States Air Force. Skerritt appeared in over 170 film and television productions since 1962, with his breakthrough role arriving in 1970 with Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H.
The actor’s first horror role wasn’t Alien, but the Satanic supernatural horror movie The Devil’s Rain, starring as Tom Preston, the elder son seeking to save his brother and mom from Satanists. That was followed by his role in Alien, where he received first billing as the level-headed captain. It was a career-defining role that nearly didn’t happen; Skerritt initially rejected the part but signed on once Ridley Scott was attached. Skerritt would later reprise Dallas in video game form, voicing the character in Alien: Isolation.
Post-Alien, Skerritt starred in the animal attack horror feature Savage Harvest, and appeared in David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone as Castle Rock’s Sheriff George Bannerman. The seasoned actor also took on the role of protective dad as Bruce Gardner in the sequel Poltergeist III. Conversely, his role in Poison Ivy landed his character in hot water with Drew Barrymore’s femme fatale a few years later.
Skerritt returned to the realm of Stephen King in 2006 with Stephen King’s Desperation, Mick Garris‘s miniseries adaptation of the 1996 novel. The actor channeled King himself as famous author Johnny Marinville, whose troubled past leads to terror in the desert.
Beyond horror, the actor, with his signature mustache, won an Emmy in 1993 and was also nominated in 1994 for playing Jimmy Brock, a sheriff in David E. Kelley’s CBS dramedy “Picket Fences.” The series also earned the cast SAG Award nominations. Other TV appearances include a guest role on “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” and “The Dead Zone.“
He is survived by his wife and five children.
