When award-winning actor and Seattle resident Tom Skerritt died in October at age 93, he left behind a long career of memorable roles on television shows and in movies. Born in Detroit in 1933, Skerritt served in the Air Force for four years after high school before going into film.
For many in the Northwest, he was much more than a performer — he was a friend, collaborator and tireless advocate for Seattle’s film community.
“I think he saw this as the promised land. And he just wanted to be able to work where he lived,” said filmmaker Rick Stevenson, who met Skerritt in the early 1990s through their mutual friend, Robert Redford.
Skerritt had appeared in Redford’s 1992 film A River Runs Through It, the story of two brothers growing up in Montana, co-starring Brad Pitt. Redford cast Skerritt as the father.
“I hear that Bob called him first; he wanted to ground the younger cast,” Stevenson said.
As Skerritt and Stevenson’s friendship grew, they founded the Alibi Room at Pike Place Market.
“There was this idea that if we had a sort of Parisian-style cafe where all the artists could come together, where fellow filmmakers would be, and we would have stacks of scripts around,” Stevenson said. “People could read and educate themselves on how to build stories and such.”
He estimated that they read through 100 screenplays, with Skerritt sometimes lending his voice. According to Stevenson, some of those screenplays became films.
Stevenson said they eventually sold the Alibi Room. But his friendship with Skerritt endured for decades, as did Skerritt’s work as a champion for the Seattle film community.
“I think he knew more about what was going on here than any of us because he was an open door to all of the Seattle and Northwest filmmakers and encouraging to all of them,” Stevenson said.
Skerritt was also involved in the local theater scene and with Prodigy Camp which mentors young creators. He co-founded the Red Badge Project, which helps military veterans tell their stories, to rediscover a sense of purpose.
When Skerritt died Oct. 21, Stevenson paid tribute to his friend, calling him timeless and youthful
“First of all, he's just great looking and had a full head of hair and was quite spry,” Stevenson said. “And you look at the East of the Mountains movie. He did that in his 80s, tromping around Eastern Washington.”
‘He brought his whole history’
SJ Chiro, who directed Skerritt in East of the Mountains, said the role was very physically demanding.
“We had freezing cold temperatures. We also had just unbearable heat,” Chiro recalled. “I had him out there walking on ridges where, you know, the producer came up to me and said, ‘Why is Tom up there?’ And I was like, ‘Nah, don't worry about it. He can handle it.’”
And he did.
The film follows a retired surgeon from Seattle, played by Skerritt, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and journeys back to the place where he grew up as he reckons with his mortality.
“He brought his whole history, and himself as a human being, as well as, of course, the artist that he was,” Chiro said.
Chiro, also a longtime member of the Seattle Film scene, said Skerritt, became the backbone of the community in the last several decades of his life.
“He understood how important arts are to a city, and he was always there to do the very best and uplift and elevate and teach and be present for that community,” Chiro said. “It was a very, very big loss.”
She said Skerritt’s passion for supporting filmmakers in his adoptive home state will continue to propel the industry forward.
“That’s the mark of a great leader and a great teacher: When they go, the community still grows and survives,” she said.
In addition to their shared passion for film, Chiro said she and Skerritt shared a love and respect for the natural world. She said his spirit will live on in the mountains, trees and especially the rivers he loved so much.
