In short:
US actor Tom Skerritt who has starred in films such as Top Gun and Alien has died aged 93.
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Skerritt's family said he died on natural causes on Wednesday.
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He is survived by his wife and five children.
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Emmy award-winning actor Tom Skerritt, known for his roles in TV series Picket Fences and films such as Top Gun and Alien, has died aged 93.
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Skerritt died on Wednesday, local time, of 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 humour, curiosity, wisdom, generosity and the love he brought into our lives," the statement read.
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"He cared deeply about imagination, creativity, storytelling, service, veterans, the natural world and helping others find and share their own voices."
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He was twice nominated for an Emmy, both for Picket Fences in 1993, when he won outstanding lead actor in a drama series.
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In an interview in 1997 with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Skerritt said, "A writer once described me as a character actor locked in a leading man's body."
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"I've always loved that.
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I've been able to walk the line between television and features."
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Lifelong friendship with Robert Redford
Skerritt grew up in a middle-class Detroit family, his father a small businessman and his mother a housewife.
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He had two brothers; a sister died as a child.
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He spent four years in the Air Force, attended Wayne State University and then switched to the University of California, Los Angeles, to study filmmaking, inspired by a viewing of Citizen Kane.
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His performance in a Los Angeles theatre production of The Rainmaker led to his first film role — a supporting role as a sergeant in the 1962 Korean War film War Hunt.
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The scrappy independent film marked the debuts of Skerritt, Robert Redford, Sydney Pollack and Francis Ford Coppola.
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Redford, who died last year, became a lifelong friend of Skerritt.
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"There was such a deep connection we made with each other that it matured into a level-headed friendship," Redford told the Seattle Times in 2007.
"
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His values were close to mine, and he kept his integrity.
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Skerritt's roles in Alien and Top Gun
One of Skerritt's most well-known roles came in Alien, in which Skerritt played the beleaguered and doomed captain of the ship Nostromo.
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He told the Seattle Times that what appealed to him in the script was that the lead actor disappeared and "the woman becomes the hero.
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I really like that idea".
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Following his performance in Alien, he was cast as Tom Cruise's instructor in Top Gun.
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We'll make you better," he said in the film.
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Skerritt had initially dreamed of directing and writing but had been overtaken by a career in front of the camera.
But he managed to direct and star in the 1997 television movie Divided by Hate.
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"Things happen," he told The Ottawa Citizen in 1992.
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"You get hired for a film and the roles kept coming for me.
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I kept telling myself that if I stuck with acting it would be a really good training for what the problems are in directing.
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Then the family came along and I had to support them.
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"The years flew by and there was a time when I said I would give up acting and really try to get into directing.
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But it hasn't worked out that way and I have no regrets."
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He is survived by his third wife, Julie Tokashiki, and five children.
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The Aporia
