Tom Skerritt, the versatile actor whose six-decade Hollywood career spanned the war satire MAS*H, the sci-fi classic Alien, and the action blockbuster Top Gun, has died at the age of 93.

The Detroit native, whose screen work stretched from the 1960s into the 2020s, died on Wednesday of natural causes, his family said in a statement.

“While the world knew Tom through his remarkable acting career, we knew him for his humor, curiosity, wisdom, generosity, and the love he brought into our lives,” the family said. “He cared deeply about imagination, creativity, storytelling, service, veterans, the natural world, and helping others find and share their own voices.”

Known for his rugged good looks and an ability to shine across a variety of genres, Mr. Skerritt delivered memorable performances in leading and supporting roles in both film and television.

His breakthrough came as the roguish US Army surgeon Duke Forrest in director Robert Altman’s 1970 Korean War black comedy MAS*H, in which the doctors of a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital stitched up wounded troops. The ensemble cast also included Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, and Sally Kellerman. The film’s popularity coincided with American unease over the Vietnam War, and it earned five Academy Award nominations, winning best picture.

Mr.erritt went on to play Dallas, the captain of an ill-fated spacecraft in director Ridley Scott’s claustrophobic 1979 sci-fi horror Alien, whose crew encounters a deadly parasitic extraterrestrial creature with a surrealist look and a bad attitude. In the film’s famous and bloody “chestburster” scene, his character sits beside cast mate John Hurt as a baby alien violently exits the torso of Mr. Hurt’s character.

Alien, an influential masterpiece whose ensemble cast also included Sigourney Weaver and Ian Holm, earned two Oscar nominations, taking home the award for visual effects.

“It is spontaneity and impulse that make the difference, and that is what I felt we had with Alien. Every one of us had that immediate rapport with each other — the respect that I had for the other actors and the respect that they had for me,” Mr. Skerritt told interviewer Peter Sobczynski in 2019, while also lauding Mr. Scott’s directorial brilliance.

Alien was one of several films in which Mr. Skerritt appeared that featured strong female characters, most notably Ms. Weaver’s courageous Ripley, a portrayal considered pioneering at the time.

“When I read the script, one of the things that I liked most about it was that the woman becomes the hero. I loved that,” Mr. Skerritt said. “The sight of women being in positions of strength and fortitude to make the right connections and decisions was what appealed to me. I experienced that as well in Steel Magnolias, with the women in that. I liked the idea of women being tough and strong and influential.”

In Steel Magnolias (1989), Mr. Skerritt played Drum Eatenton, husband of Sally Field’s M’Lynn Eatenton.

Tony Scott, the brother of the Alien director, cast Mr. Skerritt in the key supporting role of naval aviation instructor Viper Metcalf in the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, which helped star Tom Cruise soar into Hollywood’s stratosphere.

Mr. Skerritt also played Shirley MacLaine’s husband in director Herbert Ross’s 1977 ballet drama The Turning Point, and starred alongside another emerging star, Brad Pitt, in Robert Redford’s beautifully shot 1992 period drama A River Runs Through It.

His other film credits included Harold and Maude (1971), Ice Castles (1978), The Dead Zone (1983), Poltergeist III (1988), Contact (1997), Tears of the Sun (2003), and Ted (2012).

On the small screen, Mr. Skerritt starred from 1992 to 1996 in David E. Kelley’s offbeat CBS series Picket Fences, playing a Wisconsin town sheriff and claiming the Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 1993.

Born on Aug. 25, 1933, in Detroit, Mr. Skerritt served in the US Air Force before becoming an actor, making his film debut in 1962 alongside a young Mr. Redford in War Hunt. He was a father of five children and was married three times.

From the operating tents of MAS*H to the corridors of Alien and the flight decks of Top Gun, Mr. Skerritt’s six-decade run carried him through several of Hollywood’s most enduring films.

— Reuters