Rest Easy, Strawberry: Remembering Tom Skerritt Through His Unforgettable Role in Up in Smoke

Hollywood lost one of its most reliable and understated talents today. Tom Skerritt, the Emmy-winning actor known for everything from the haunted corridors of the Nostromo in Alien to the small-town quirks of Picket Fences, died Wednesday of natural causes. He was 93.

While many will rightly celebrate his turns as Captain Dallas, Viper in Top Gun, or Sheriff Jimmy Brock, today we’re lighting one up in memory of a different character entirely: Strawberry, the wild-eyed, Vietnam-scarred pot dealer in Cheech and Chong’s classic 1978 stoner comedy Up in Smoke.

In the film, Skerritt plays Pedro’s cousin Strawberry — a laid-back, slightly unhinged veteran living in a house that feels like a permanent haze. When Cheech and Chong show up looking for weed, they find themselves in the middle of one of the movie’s most memorable sequences. Strawberry greets the great outdoors with pure, blissed-out enthusiasm (“Ahhh, look at that man, the great outdoors, huh!”), hosts a party that goes sideways in classic Cheech & Chong fashion, and later has a full-blown flashback when the cops raid the place, briefly convinced the police are the Viet Cong. It’s pure 1970s counterculture comedy, and Skerritt commits to the bit with the same quiet intensity he brought to his more “serious” roles.

That performance wasn’t just a funny cameo. It was Skerritt showing range — the same guy who could command a spaceship or a fighter jet could also play a burned-out, generous, slightly unhinged dealer without a hint of condescension. For a whole generation of fans, Strawberry is the role that first made them notice him.

Tommy Chong, who co-wrote and starred in the film, paid tribute today with a simple, perfect send-off. Posting a photo alongside the message:

Rest easy Strawberry.
@TRSkerritt

That’s all it needed to be. From one of the guys who shared the screen with him in that hazy house party nearly 50 years ago.

Skerritt’s career stretched across decades and genres — MASH*, The Turning Point, A River Runs Through It, Steel Magnolias, Contact, and so many more. He brought a grounded, everyman quality that made even the wildest material feel real. But for the stoner comedy faithful, he’ll always be the guy who looked out at the trees, smiled that crooked smile, and reminded us how good the great outdoors can feel when the timing (and the product) is right.

Rest easy, Strawberry. The party’s a little quieter without you.