Tom Skerritt

Tom Skerritt and his wife of two years, Julie Tokashiki, finished their beautiful new home on the outskirts of Seattle in May. A week after the last speck of dust settled, she went to Hollywood for an extended stay as a television development executive for Warner Bros. and he reported to Calgary to shoot "High Noon" (Sunday, Aug. 20, 8-10 p.m., TBS).

While Tokashiki stayed on in Los Angeles, Skerritt remained in Canada but moved on to Montreal a couple of months later to film "Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis" (Joanna Whalley), a four-hour CBS miniseries slated to air in November. The best they can hope for during the next couple of months is hooking up in a hotel room far from home once in a while.

Whenever they selfishly contemplate a moment of privacy, common sense prevails and they`re off to see one of his four grown children by two previous marriages spread all over the West. None of his offspring is acting, opting instead for careers ranging from computer consulting in Washington state to managing The Spur, his restaurant and microbrewery in Crested Butte, Colo.

Between locations, Skerritt - a smooth old pro - is promoting his ongoing projects at every opportunity. His immediate concern in the telefilm remake of "High Noon," the classic 1952 Western starring Gary Cooper as Will Kane, the resolute marshal hoping to retire quietly with his younger Quaker wife Amy (Grace Kelly), when a revenge-seeking gunman suddenly reappears to force a shoot-out.

Skerritt was blown away by the picture when he first saw it as a teen-ager and again when he screened it just before going into production on the remake. As a writer, he was particularly struck by the minimalism of the script by Carl Foreman (loosely adapted from "The Tin Star," a magazine story by John W. Cunningham) and the economy of Fred Zinnemann`s direction. Stanley Kramer produced.

A solid hit, the original "High Noon" also co-starred Katy Jurado as Helen Ramirez, Kane`s ex-girlfriend, and Lloyd Bridges as Harvey Pell, the jealous and gutless deputy marshal. Cooper earned an Academy Award for Best Actor. The feature also picked up Oscars for Best Song (Tex Ritter did the honors), Editing, and Scoring of a Dramatic Picture. And it was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Starring as Will Kane, a man of unwavering principle and loyalty, Skerritt is joined by Susanna Thompson as Amy Kane, Reed Diamond as Harvey Pell, Maria Conchita Alonso as Helen Ramirez and Michael Madsen as the mad gunman Frank Miller. Australia TV director Rod Hardy ("Two For Texas, "The Yearling") helms the movie of the week written by T.S. Cook ("The China Syndrome") and executive produced by David A. Rosemont ("Purgatory," "Tenth Man").

The first edition of "High Noon" was shot on the dusty, sun-baked back lot of a Hollywood studio by director of photography Floyd Crosby, who employed an unusually high number of low camera shots in exteriors to avoid telephone poles and wires. Unfortunately, he could not prevent an occasional palm tree from cropping up in the picture - including the seminal image of Kane, completely abandoned, slowly walking through town.

"We have the same respect for the material as the original cast and crew, but it was shot in desert dust and ours was photographed in mountain mud," laughs the craggy-faced Skerritt, 67. "The outdoor set near Calgary, used in `Lonesome Dove` and Jackie Chan`s `Shanghai Noon,` is a very cold place. We`d go from sunshine to rain, sleet and snow in a matter of minutes. It gives our film a very different look than the one shot in Los Angeles."

A veteran of more than a dozen Westerns who first climbed into the saddle with a handful of guest shots on "Gunsmoke" episodes, the mustachioed Skerritt loves the sight and smell of the genre.

"It has a rhythm of its own," he says, dipping into a tiny, very expensive fruit plate in the bar of a Pasadena, Calif., luxury hotel. "You start out acting like a cowboy, then soon get back to use all the right muscles when you ride a horse. You gradually adjust to a whole new way of life. All the little pieces start falling into place."

The most obvious question, of course, is why someone should bother to remake a classic Western movie - especially since the original was showered with Oscar wins and nominations 48 years ago. It doesn`t faze Skerritt in the least.

"The same question applies when you`re remaking a work by William Shakespeare, Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams," he says evenly.

"A classic basically means it`s timeless," he continues, downing a whole strawberry. "It`s something that deserves to be resurrected for each generation, making sure it lives on in the minds of many. In a way, I`d say it is a method of preserving our history and culture. `High Noon` isn`t `Hamlet,` of course, but it`s still a classic that deserves to be revisited simply because it is a classic."

Once he wraps production in Montreal as patriarch Joe Kennedy in the long-form "Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis," Skerritt turns his attention to "Honor and Stone." The independent feature film - which he wrote and will direct - revolves around an aging admiral in the U.S. Navy reflecting on a pivotal event in his life that took place in 1944. Skerritt did not write a part for himself, but in a pinch, he could play one of several character roles.

The Detroit native turned to acting after four uneventful years in the Air Force during the mid-1950s by enrolling in the liberal arts program at Wayne State University. In an effort to get rid of his innate shyness, he eventually threw himself on stage in a friend`s community theater production. In 1960, Skerritt loaded his ancient car with a few belongings, a new wife and little baby.

After two more years of theater training at the University of California at Los Angeles, Skerritt made his motion-picture debut in the low-budget "War Hunt" with the equally unknown Robert Redford. He expected to go somewhere fast, but the film wasn`t released until 18 months later. Rather than starve, he sold ladies` shoes in an exclusive Beverly Hills boutique until a string of episodic guest shots came his way.

Doing several episodes of "Combat" for director Robert Altman led to his first major film break in "M*A*S*H" (1970), followed by such epics as "The Turning Point" (1977), "Alien" (1979), "Top Gun" (1986) and "A River Runs Through It" (1992). An Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Series for "Picket Fences" (1992-96) didn`t hurt either.

"All I want now," he muses, "is to go home with my wife once in a while. We have a beautiful home. Really."

(c) Copley News Service

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Author: Eirik Knutzen