by Stephen Vagg
The recent passing of Tom Skerritt has prompted our nationalistic mag to look for connections between Skerritt and Australia.
Warning: some very tenuous. But this is an affectionate tribute to a fine actor, we swear.
1) He starred in A Dangerous Summer (1982)
This was a 10BA bushfire-sploitation starring Skerritt, which he made out here in 1981. Skerritt played a builder who gets involved with shonky Guy Doleman and insurance investigator James Mason. The movie was based around real bushfire footage and a 24-minute documentary from Brian Trenchard-Smith called That Dangerous Summer. Trenchard-Smith should have directed this too but the job went to Quentin Masters, of the famous Masters family (his siblings include coach Roy, investigative journalist Chris and broadcaster Sue), best known for directing The Stud (1978). Finance was raised by 10BA experts Filmco, whose oeuvre included The Dark Room and An Early Frost.
This should have been a straight-up disaster movie but instead it’s an arson mystery with gratuitous nudity which feels as though it was made without a script, which apparently was the case (they had a scenario and had to make it up on the day). It cost almost $3 million and was a flop.
2) Harold and Maude (1971)
Skerritt is in this no kidding… from a script by Australia’s own Colin Higgins. Well, he’s kind of Australian, he lived here for a number of years as a child due to World War Two (mum was American) and picked up the accent. Skerritt was called in to appear in the film at the last minute when the original actor cast broke his leg.
3) High Noon (2000) and Two for Texas (1998)
Skerritt looked good in a hat and on a horse and accordingly appeared in a number of Westerns through his career. These were two he made for cable, both directed by Australia’s own Rod Hardy, who made a number of solid Westerns during his career. Hardy called Skerritt “Mr Everyday. People know who Tom Skerritt is. They don’t treat him like a superstar. They feel he’s approachable.”
4) MASH (1970)
This is tenuous. Burt Reynolds claimed he was meant to play the part eventually played by Skerritt but decided to make Skulduggery instead, which was set in New Guinea, then an Australian territory (Chips Rafferty co-starred – it was shot in Jamaica though). The enormous success of the Robert Altman movie helped get Skerritt out of network television where he’d spent most of the 1960s.
5) The Heist (1989)
This was a cable movie Skerritt made with Australian-in-law-at-the-time Pierce Brosnan (married to Cassie Harris) and Australia’s own Wendy Hughes, who had also been in A Dangerous Summer. Made during that period when Brosnan missed out on James Bond in The Living Daylights and was playing leads in random productions like this one.
6) Nightmare at Bitter Creek (1988)
Canadian cable movie with Skerritt… directed by Australia’s own Tim Burstall! It’s sort of Deliverance with women in the Pacific Northwest. Skerritt plays a craggy male lead in a female-driven production, something which he did quite often, which added to his employability (Alien, The Turning Point, Ice Castles, Steel Magnolias). Possibly Burstall’s most anonymous credit.
7) Picket Fences (1992-96)
Skerritt got a decent pay day via this David E. Kelley TV series where he co-starred opposite Australia’s own Costas Mandylor. It was on Channel Ten during that station’s peak cheap-imported-television era.
