The lean, rugged US actor Tom Skerritt, who has died aged 93, was described by one screenwriter as “a character actor trapped in a leading man’s body”. He took significant roles as authority figures in the films Alien, Top Gun and A River Runs Through It before landing star billing in the 1990s TV family drama Picket Fences, as a sheriff trying to keep the peace in a rural Wisconsin town plagued by violent – and bizarre – crimes.
Skerritt’s breakthrough had come in the 1970 film M*A*S*H, directed by Robert Altman. He played Augustus “Duke” Forrest, a US army surgeon in the Korean war exuding southern charm at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Along with his fellow surgeons, Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce (played by Donald Sutherland) and “Trapper” John McIntyre (Elliott Gould), Duke displayed cynicism and irreverence towards his superiors.
