Tom Skerritt With one of those faces that are so often seen in the movies and on the television Tom Skerritt has become the best-known actor whose name is never remembered. The rugged handsome actor, always sporting the trademark moustache, has been everything from a war dog to the husband of Sally Field in two movies.Born in Detroit, the Motor City, Michigan on August 25th 1933 to Roy, a small business man and Helen who was a homemaker, Skerritt is one of three boys and one sister who died. Tom decided that if he couldn't be a ballplayer he wanted to be Frank Sinatra, but without the same dash or voice. Tom attended David Mackenzie High School and graduated in 1951 and went on to the University of California where he first began to pursue his love of acting. He spent four years in the Air Force, and by the time he was 21, he was married to a young artist and with whom he had a baby. His career really took off when he was discovered at UCLA in a production of “The Rainmaker” and from there he went on to make his feature film debut in the 1962 movie, “War Hunt” with Robert Redford who was also a new comer at that time, Sydney Pollack and Tommy Matsuda. In the same year he had his debut in television when he appeared in “Combat” with Vic Morrow and Jack Hogan.
In Tom’s early career he mainly landed small roles in TV series such as “My Three Sons” with Fred MacMurray,”Bonanza” with Lorne Green, “The Fugitive” with David Janssen and “The Virginian” with James Drury. Tom appeared in nine episodes of the series “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World” from 1965 to 1967. After working with cartoon characters Tom went on to work with “war heroes” in the film version of the long running TV series “M*A*S*H”, where took on the role of Capt. August Bedford “Duke” Forrest, along with Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall and Elliott Gould. His role was not notable but he did garner attention and went on to appear as Shirley MacLaine's husband, Wayne, in the Academy Award-nominated film "The Turning Point." Winning his first career accolade for his thoughtful performance in "Point," Tom was named Best Supporting Actor by the National Board of Review. Next, he landed the starring role of Dallas, ill-fated captain of the ill-fated spaceship Nostromo in Ridley Scott's sci-fi movie "Alien" in 1979.
Tom’s biggest film role was to follow in 1986 when he starred along side Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer in “Top Gun” where he portrayed Mike “Viper” Metcalf. For a while in 1990 Skerritt took an interest in working behind the camera and directed “A Question of Sex’ a made for TV educational school film. Tom continued to play leading roles in several box office hits such as, “Steel Magnolias” with Sally Field and Julia Roberts, “The Rookie”, “Poison Ivy” with Drew Barrymore and “A River Runs Through It” starring Robert Redford in 1992. Once again Tom returned to work behind the camera when he directed a number of episodes of “Pickett Fences” in which he had previously starred as Sherriff Jimmy Brock winning the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1993 before the series was axed from the screen. Returning primarily to acting, Skerritt appeared alongside Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey in "Contact" and appeared with Bruce Willis in "Tears of the Sun".
In 2006, Skerritt joined the cast of Showtime's acclaimed drama "Huff", portraying Hank Azaria's neglectful father, Ben Huffstodt. Though the role was originally played by Robert Forster, Skerritt was brought in during the second season to carry on the role. Skerritt also appeared in Stephen King’s "Desperation" in 2006.
Tom’s adopted city is Seattle Washington where, when he's not acting or working at his Seattle film school he writes, paints, plays tennis and more than keeps pace with his third wife, Julie Tokashiki, who is 30 years his junior. ABB | 
