Tom Skerritt and the Quiet Authority Hollywood Forgot to Replace

Who plays the person in charge when nobody in the room needs to shout? For decades the answer was Tom Skerritt, and his death at 93 is a good moment to notice how rarely we hear that question asked anymore.

The facts first. Skerritt died Wednesday of natural causes, his family said in a statement, as ABC7 Chicago reports. He was the Emmy-winning actor who embodied a solid, wry authority figure, in the words of that obituary: the flight instructor in "Top Gun," the tough-but-fair sheriff of "Picket Fences," the doomed captain of "Alien." Rolling Stone notes that his career spanned seven decades, from television guest spots in the 1960s to a breakout in Robert Altman's "MAS*H" in 1970.

The boss who doesn't need the spotlight

Look at the three roles that define him. Dallas in "Alien" is the captain, and the film's whole horror engine depends on the audience trusting him a little before it takes him away. Commander Mike "Viper" Metcalf in "Top Gun" is the adult in a movie full of swagger, the man who has to make a room of hotshots listen without out-peacocking them. Sheriff Jimmy Brock in "Picket Fences" won him an Emmy in 1993 for outstanding lead actor in a drama series, by being the steady center of a very strange town.

None of these are showy parts. That is the point, in our view. Authority on screen is mostly a matter of economy: the pause, the dry line, the look that says he has seen this before. Skerritt had it in abundance, and it made everyone around him look better.

He knew exactly what he was

Skerritt seemed to understand his own niche. He told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1997 that a writer once described him as "a character actor locked in a leading man's body," adding that he's always loved that. That sentence is a small manifesto. He moved between television and features without treating either as a demotion, and he built a body of work, over 170 productions by Wikipedia's count, instead of a brand.

That is the part modern stardom struggles with, or so it looks to us. Today's economy seems to reward the franchise face or the viral persona, while the reliable, slightly amused senior figure gets treated as furniture. We think that is a loss. Films still need a believable commander, a believable father, a believable sheriff, and in our view the shortage shows when someone is cast for fame rather than gravity. That is a judgment call, not a statistic, but it is one we would defend.

The off-screen part fits the on-screen one

The family's statement stresses humor, curiosity and generosity, and it points to concrete work. Skerritt helped found TheFilmSchool in Seattle and co-founded the Red Badge Project, which helps veterans work through PTSD, anxiety and depression by writing and sharing their experiences. He had also served four years in the U.S. Air Force before acting. A man who played so many people responsible for others apparently spent real effort being responsible for others. That coherence is rare and worth noting.

Our verdict

Skip the urge to reduce him to a trivia answer about "Top Gun." Watch "Picket Fences" or the first act of "Alien" and pay attention to how little he does and how much it lands. Then ask why the industry has so few actors who can do the same. Skerritt's career is the best argument we know for casting the quiet one in charge, and for remembering that the person holding the scene together is rarely the one on the poster.