The lean, rugged US actor Tom Skerritt, who has died aged 93, was described by one screenwriter as “a character actor trapped in a leading man’s body”. He took significant roles as authority figures in the films Alien, Top Gun and A River Runs Through It before landing star billing in the 1990s TV family drama Picket Fences, as a sheriff trying to keep the peace in a rural Wisconsin town plagued by violent – and bizarre – crimes.

Skerritt’s breakthrough had come in the 1970 film M*A*S*H , directed by Robert Altman . He played Augustus “Duke” Forrest, a US army surgeon in the Korean war exuding southern charm at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Along with his fellow surgeons, Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce ( played by Donald Sutherland ) and “Trapper” John McIntyre (Elliott Gould), Duke displayed cynicism and irreverence towards his superiors.

But Skerritt’s character was not transferred to the TV series that followed.…