Skerritt, twice nominated for an Emmy and a winner in 1993 for "Picket Fences", built a screen career that ran from a $250,000 Korean War indie to network television and Broadway. His family, announcing his death, said they knew him for his humour, curiosity, wisdom, generosity and the love he brought into their lives.

A career on screen and stage

Movie audiences met Skerritt as the doomed captain of the ship Nostromo in the 1979 film "Alien" and as the tough flight instructor in the 1986 megahit "Top Gun". Between and beyond those hits came a run of steady, understated parts:

• •the patient husband of Shirley MacLaine in "Turning Point", which earned him a National Board of Review win
• •Sally Field's husband in "Steel Magnolias"
• •a scheming opportunist opposite Jodie Foster in "Contact"

Television brought the Picket Fences Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 1993, one of two nominations, both for that series. He later appeared on stage as the narrator in "Our Town" at Seattle's Intiman Theatre in 2004, and made his Broadway debut in 2013 in an adaptation of John Grisham's "A Time to Kill", a performance the Associated Press said nicely pulled off a charming disgraced and drunken lawyer.

He described himself, happily, through a borrowed line. He told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1997: "A writer once described me as a character actor locked in a leading man's body, and I've always loved that. It's a nice compliment."

From Detroit to 'War Hunt'

Skerritt grew up in a middle-class Detroit family, his father a small businessman and his mother a housewife. He had two brothers; a sister died as a child. After four years in the Air Force he attended Wayne State University, then moved to UCLA to study filmmaking, inspired by watching "Citizen Kane".

His first film role came as a sergeant in the 1962 scrappy independent Korean War film "War Hunt". The movie marked the debuts not only of Skerritt but of Robert Redford, Sydney Pollack and Francis Ford Coppola. Redford and Skerritt were vying for the same lead role, with the former winning out; The New York Times was impressed by Skerritt's "halting, thoughtful manner".

The 'Picket Fences' years

The series that secured his standing was created by David E. Kelley, set in the community of Rome, Wisconsin, and ran four years from 1992 to 1996, winning 14 Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. Skerritt co-starred opposite Kathy Baker, playing his doctor wife, and took the outstanding lead actor Emmy in 1993.

He credited the writing. Skerritt told the A.V. Club in 2019: "It was written by the best writer on television. That was the magic and brilliance of it."

His part in "Alien" appealed to him, he explained, because the lead actor disappears and the woman becomes the hero - an idea, he said, that he really liked.

A lifelong friendship with Redford

The rivalry over the "War Hunt" lead turned into a lasting bond: Redford, who died last year, became a lifelong friend and later cast Skerritt as Reverend John Maclean in "A River Runs Through It". Redford told the Seattle Times in 2007: "There was such a deep connection we made with each other that it matured into a level-headed friendship. His values were close to mine, and he kept his integrity."

Directing was Skerritt's initial dream, he told The Ottawa Citizen in 1992, but the acting roles kept coming; he said he had no regrets. Alongside those roles he worked for Robert Altman in "M.A.S.H." and "Thieves Like Us", took a bit part as a motorcycle cop in Hal Ashby's "Harold and Maude", and in 1997 directed and starred in the television movie "Divided by Hate".

His later television work included William Walker on ABC's "Brothers and Sisters", Jimmy Ford on TNT's "Leverage" and a recurring role as Evan Drake on "Cheers", along with the Hallmark movie "What the Deaf Man Heard" opposite Matthew Modine.

Skerritt is survived by his third wife, Julie Tokashiki, and five children.