Tom Skerritt, the actor who played Viper in Top Gun and the doomed captain in Alien, dies aged 93
Skerritt died of natural causes on Wednesday, and his family remembered his 'humor, curiosity, wisdom, generosity'. Born in Detroit in 1933, he spent four years in the US Air Force before making his screen debut opposite Robert Redford in War Hunt in 1962. His breakout came as surgeon Duke Forrest in Robert Altman's M*A*S*H in 1970. He won an Emmy in 1993 playing a Wisconsin sheriff in Picket Fences.
Julia Roberts led the celebrity tributes to the star, who had five children.
He first turned down Alien, fearing it 'could have been directed by Ed Wood'.
He loved that in Alien's script 'the woman becomes the hero'.
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