Tom Skerritt
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| Tom Skerritt | |
 Skerritt as Cmdr Mike 'Viper' Metcalf in Top Gun |
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| Birth name | Thomas Roy Skerritt |
| Born | August 25, 1933 (age 73) Detroit,Mich, USA |
Tom Skerritt (born August 25, 1933) is an American actor, born in Detroit, Michigan. He made his television debut in 1962 in Combat!. He made his film debut in War Hunt (1962), produced by Terry Sanders.
Skerritt's most notable film appearances include M*A*S*H (1970; his huge role was pared down enormously by director Robert Altman), Harold and Maude (credited as M. Borman) (1971), Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke (1978),Alien (1979), Contact (1997) and Top Gun (1986), where he played opposite Tom Cruise as Cmdr. Mike "Viper" Metcalf.
He was the Rev. Maclean in A River Runs Through It (1992) He was in the movie Poison Ivy (1992) with Drew Barrymore and also played a sheriff in The Dead Zone, a movie based on a Stephen King novel. He also appeared as Evan Drake in the television sitcom Cheers as well as on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and The West Wing (2003), and starred in the television series Picket Fences (1992–1996). More recently Skerritt has starred in Homeland Security and The Grid which is a Fox/BBC co-production. Both of these two latter projects dealt with counter-terrorism. He also portrays the deceased William Walker on Brothers & Sisters, having appeared in the pilot as well as in several flashbacks since. This is his second time playing the husband of Sally Field. The first being his role in the film Steel Magnolias.
He appears as the guide on the showcase website for Microsoft's new Operating System 'Windows Vista.'
A 1953 graduate of Detroit's David Mackenzie High School, Skerritt has lived in Seattle, Washington since 1988.
Skerritt has also recently been mentioned in Liam Kyle Sullivan's online skit titled, "Shoes."
