Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3093
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Tom Skerritt represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 55 years in, and Tom is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Tom Skerritt appears in 21 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Tom. Alien is the clearest case: a film rated 9.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for western, drama, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Seth MacFarlane, Antoine Fuqua, Garry Marshall and others, Tom Skerritt helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Alien (1979) as Dallas · Alien (1979) as Dallas · Contact (1997) as David Drumlin
Career snapshot
Ranked #3093 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
21
1970–2025
Career length
55 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.2
Alien
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
Alien
Most frequent director
Ridley Scott
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Ridley Scott
Most common genre
Drama
11 titles
Average runtime
1h 48m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.2
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.1
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1970s
7.7 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. Alien, Alien, Up in Smoke — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.7
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.6
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Alien, Alien, Up in Smoke.
Most productive era
1970s
5 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.12 films | 7.31 film | 6.45 films | 6.91 film | — | 6.32 films |
| Action | — | 7.31 film | 5.91 film | 6.32 films | — | 5.52 films |
| Thriller | — | 7.01 film | 5.72 films | 5.61 film | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.93 films | — | 6.41 film | — | 6.42 films | — |
| Sci-Fi | 9.21 film | — | — | — | — | — |
| Crime | — | — | 5.91 film | 5.61 film | — | — |
| Romance | 7.31 film | 7.31 film | 6.41 film | — | 6.31 film | — |
| Horror | 8.82 films | 7.01 film | — | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1970M*A*S*H
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Duke Forrest.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1979Alien
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2025Broke
The current state of the argument, as Cliff.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
21 of 21 films
as Dallas
Directed by Ridley Scott
as Dallas
Directed by Ridley Scott
as David Drumlin
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
as Viper
Directed by Tony Scott
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 24 titles · 25 total credits · active 1966–2025
Broke
2025 · Cliff
Catch the Bullet
2021 · Dex
East of the Mountains
2021 · Ben Givens · Executive Producer
Memory: The Origins of Alien
2019 · Self
At Middleton
2013 · Dr. Roland Emerson
Ted
2012 · Tom Skerritt
Whiteout
2009 · Dr. John Fury
Leverage
2008 · TV · Jimmy Ford
Brothers and Sisters
2006 · TV · William Walker
Tears of the Sun
2003 · Captain Bill Rhodes
The Other Sister
1999 · Radley Tate
Contact
1997 · David Drumlin
A River Runs Through It
1992 · Rev. Maclean
Poison Ivy
1992 · Darryl Cooper
The Rookie
1990 · Eugene Ackerman
Top Gun
1986 · Viper
SpaceCamp
1986 · Zack
The Dead Zone
1983 · Sheriff Bannerman
Cheers
1982 · TV · Evan Drake
Alien
1979 · Dallas
Up in Smoke
1978 · Strawberry
Harold and Maude
1971 · Motorcycle Officer
M*A*S*H
1970 · Duke Forrest
The Time Tunnel
1966 · TV · Matthew Gebhardt
The defining work
#1
Dallas
Alien (1979)
Performance score9.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Dallas gives Tom Skerritt a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Dallas
Alien (1979)
Performance score8.8
Alien asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dallas is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
David Drumlin
Contact (1997)
Performance score7.6
Contact asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. David Drumlin is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Rev. Maclean
A River Runs Through It (1992)
Performance score7.4
A River Runs Through It asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rev. Maclean is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Dallas
Start here. Alien is the clearest statement of what Tom Skerritt does — accessible, 117 minutes, and rated 9.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Tom at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Alien (1979)
Same director as Alien, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Top Gun (1986)
A deliberate change of key after Alien — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
A River Runs Through It (1992)
Keeps the drama register of Top Gun but asks for a colder reading of it.
Contact (1997)
Keeps the drama register of A River Runs Through It but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Ridley Scott
Director
2 films together
Notably Alien
Robert Altman
Director
1 film together
Notably M*A*S*H
Hal Ashby
Director
1 film together
Notably Harold and Maude
Lou Adler
Director
1 film together
Notably Up in Smoke
David Cronenberg
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dead Zone
Harry Winer
Director
1 film together
Notably SpaceCamp
Tony Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Top Gun
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably The Rookie
Katt Shea
Director
1 film together
Notably Poison Ivy
Robert Redford
Director
1 film together
Notably A River Runs Through It
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably Contact
Garry Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably The Other Sister
Antoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together
Notably Tears of the Sun
Seth MacFarlane
Director
1 film together
Notably Ted
Sigourney Weaver
Actor
1 film together
Notably Alien
Veronica Cartwright
Actor
1 film together
Notably Alien
Harry Dean Stanton
Actor
1 film together
Notably Alien
John Hurt
Actor
1 film together
Notably Alien
Ian Holm
Actor
1 film together
Notably Alien
Yaphet Kotto
Actor
1 film together
Notably Alien
Bolaji Badejo
Actor
1 film together
Notably Alien
Helen Horton
Actor
1 film together
Notably Alien
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Ridley Scott
Director
2 films together · 8.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
AlienRobert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ContactTony Scott
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Top GunHal Ashby
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Harold and MaudeRobert Redford
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A River Runs Through ItDavid Cronenberg
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Dead ZoneAntoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tears of the SunRobert Altman
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
M*A*S*HLou Adler
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Up in SmokeSeth MacFarlane
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TedGarry Marshall
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Other SisterClint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The RookieHarry Winer
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SpaceCampKatt Shea
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Poison IvySix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Alien
as Dallas
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Top Gun
as Viper
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Alien
as Dallas
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Up in Smoke
as Strawberry
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Alien
as Dallas
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Tom Skerritt has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.2 | 8.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #230 of 681 | #2 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 2 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 6 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.2 | 9.3 |
| Genres | Horror, Sci-Fi | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | Ridley Scott | Christopher Nolan |
| Performance DNA | Screen presence, Intensity, Charisma | Transformation, Screen presence, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 1979–1979 | 2006–2014 |
| Most iconic role | Dallas — Alien | Professor Brand — Interstellar |
| Most rewatchable film | Alien | The Dark Knight |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Best Space Movies, Sci-Fi Movies
Michael Caine edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
55 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
11 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Alien
as Dallas
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Alien
as Dallas
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Other Sister
as Radley Tate
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Contact
as David Drumlin
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Alien
as Dallas
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Catch the Bullet
as Dex
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
M*A*S*H
as Duke Forrest
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Alien
as Dallas
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 4 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: sci-fi and adventure
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Harry Dean Stanton
Works with the same directors — Ridley Scott
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
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Reference
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