HOLLYWOOD MOURNS

‘Top Gun’ Actor Dies at 93

The Emmy-winning actor’s family announced he died of natural causes.

Tom Skerritt, known for his roles in Top Gun and Picket Fences, died Wednesday at age 93.

The Emmy-winning actor passed from natural causes, his family said in a statement.

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“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,” the family said, requesting privacy as they grieve.

“We are incredibly grateful for the love and support being shown by his friends, colleagues, and fans.”

Skerritt was born in Detroit and joined the U.S. Air Force after graduating high school. His father was a small business owner and his mother was a homemaker.

He went on to attend the University of California, Los Angeles with the help of the G.I. Bill.

“Being a blue-collar, middle-class guy from Detroit, I had transferred out to UCLA as an English major who was interested in directing,” Skerritt 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.”

Skerritt was in a UCLA production of The Rainmaker when he was discovered and made his film debut in 1962’s War Hunt with Robert Redford.

He took on several other supporting roles before landing a lead in 1979’s Alien.

The Top Gun actor said once that making Alien was “one of the most memorable things” in his career. “I recognized we were making something extraordinary,” he said.

In the 80s, Skerritt appeared in Ryan’s Four, The Twilight Zone, and Cheers, before landing a role in 1986’s Top Gun.

“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,” Skerritt told Fox News about the original Top Gun.

Skerritt won an Emmy for his role as a small-town sheriff in the CBS series Picket Fences in 1993.

In 2020, Skerritt and his wife, Julie Tokashiki, founded the film company Triple Squirrels to “deliver the best visual storytelling possible in times when blockbuster movies lack originality in storytelling and are shackled by unforgiving budgets.”

Skerritt and Tokashiki met on the set of Picket Fences. The actor was married to Sue Oran for 15 years, and to Charlotte Shanks for 15 years before that.

He co-founded the Red Badge Project in 2012, a non-profit that helps veterans manage post-traumatic stress disorder through storytelling and writing.

The Top Gun actor is survived by Tokashiki, five children, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

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Lauren HartleyBreaking News Intern

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