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Tom Alter
Alter in 2016
Born	Thomas Beach Alter (1950-06-22)22 June 1950 Mussoorie, Uttar Pradesh (now Uttarakhand), India
Died	29 September 2017(2017-09-29) (aged 67) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1975–2017
Spouse	Carol Evans ​(m. 1977)​
Children	2
Relatives	Martha Chen (sister) Stephen Alter (first cousin)

Thomas Beach Alter (22 June 1950 – 29 September 2017) was an Indian actor. He was best known for his works in Hindi cinema, and Indian theatre. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.

Early life

Born in Mussoorie in present-day Uttarakhand, Alter was the son of American Presbyterian missionaries of English, Scottish and Swiss German ancestry and lived for years in Mumbai and the Himalayan hill station of Landour. His grandparents migrated to Madras, India from Ohio, U.S., in November 1916. From there, they moved to and settled in Lahore, in present-day Pakistan. His father was born in Sialkot. After the Partition of India, Alter's family too split into two; his grandparents chose to stay in Pakistan while his parents moved to India. After living in Allahabad, Jabalpur and Saharanpur, in 1954 they finally settled in Rajpur, Uttarakhand, then a small town located between Dehradun and Mussoorie; Rajpur is now considered a suburb of Dehradun. Alter's siblings are older sister Martha Chen, who teaches at Harvard University and brother John, a poet. Author Stephen Alter is a first cousin.

As a child, Alter studied Hindi among other subjects in Mussoorie. Consequently, he came to be occasionally referred to as the "Blue-eyed saheb with impeccable Hindi." He was educated in Mussoorie's Woodstock School. At 18, Alter left for the U.S. for higher education and studied at Yale University for a year before returning to India upon losing interest in studies. The following year, he obtained work as a teacher at St. Thomas School, Jagadhri, in Haryana. He worked there for six months, simultaneously coaching his students in cricket. Over the next two and a half years, Alter worked several jobs, teaching for a while at Woodstock School, Mussoorie, and working at a hospital in the U.S., and returning to India before continuing to work at Jagadhri. At Jagadhri, he began to watch Hindi films. It was during this time that he saw the Hindi film Aradhana, which proved to be a turning point in his career and drifted towards a career in acting, inspired by the lead actor Rajesh Khanna. He headed to Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, where he studied acting from 1972 to 1974 under Roshan Taneja. In a 2017 interview, he recalled, "I came to Mumbai to become Rajesh Khanna; didn't come to act on stage."

Career

Film

After graduating from FTII, Alter headed straight to Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) and soon got his first break in the Dev Anand starrer Saheb Bahadur (1977), directed by Chetan Anand. However, his first release was Ramanand Sagar's Charas. This was followed by roles in Des Pardes, Ram Bharose, Hum Kisise Kum Nahin and Parvarish. He dubbed for actor Jeevan for the innocent person of the twin roles played by Jeevan in the film Amar Akbar Anthony.

Alter was fluent in Hindi and Urdu, and was knowledgeable about Indian culture. He could also read Urdu and was fond of Shayari. He worked for noted filmmakers like Satyajit Ray in Shatranj Ke Khilari and is remembered for his role as a British officer in Kranti. He got the opportunity to act with his idol Rajesh Khanna in the film Naukri, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee in 1978 and later in Chetan Anand's Kudrat. In Sardar, the 1993 film biography of Indian leader Sardar Patel, which focused on the events surrounding the partition and independence of India, Alter portrayed Lord Mountbatten of Burma. He also acted in the Hollywood movie One Night with the King with Peter O'Toole.

In 1996 he appeared in the Assamese film Adajya, and in 2007 acted in William Dalrymple's City of Djinns alongside Zohra Sehgal and Manish Joshi Bismil. He also appeared in the solo play Maulana and the film Ocean of An Old Man.

Alter played the role of a doctor in Bheja Fry, a comedy movie starring Rajat Kapoor.

In April 2011 he acted in a short film Yours, Maria directed by Chirag Vadgama, playing the lead role of Matthew Chacha in the movie.

Alter lent his voice for the authorized audio autobiography of Dr. Verghese Kurien, titled The Man Who Made The Elephant Dance, which was released in 2012.

Some of his most famous movie roles have been as Musa in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's acclaimed crime drama Parinda, Mahesh Bhatt's blockbuster romance Aashiqui, and Ketan Mehta's Sardar, in which Alter essayed the role of Lord Mountbatten.

His last film was Hamari Paltan (2018).

Television

Alter appeared in many Indian television series, including Samvidhaan, all of which were praised by the audience for his acting. In Zabaan Sambhalke he played the role of a British writer, Charles Spencers, who lives in India and wants to learn the Hindi language. He acted in the TV series Khamosh Sa Afsana (as a Husain Baba), telecast on Doordarshan in 2014–15. In November 2014, he played Sahir Ludhianvi in a stage production based on the life and work of the famous Urdu poet and film lyricist. He also played a schoolteacher in Yahan Ke Hum Sikandar. Alter has worked as the red robe guru in Mukesh Khanna's TV production Shaktimaan (1998–2002). Also, he appeared in Contiloe & Cinevistaas show Ssshhhh...Koi Hai in 2002–03. He played Indian characters in Indian television series, such as the long-running Junoon, in which he was the sadistic mob lord Keshav Kalsi. He anchored "Adabi Cocktail" in 2000 telecast on Urdu Television Network and interviewed Johny Walker, Naushad, TunTun, Hasan Kamaal, Adnan Sami, Jagdeep, Naqsh layalpuri and many more.

Theatre

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Alter was also a stage actor. In 1977, he, Naseeruddin Shah, and Benjamin Gilani formed a theatre group called Motley Productions. Their first play was Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, which was staged at Prithvi Theatre, Bombay, on 29 July 1979. He went on to appear in many other plays at the theatre, including an adaptation of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer's My Grandad Had an Elephant which was performed on 7 June 2011. He has also worked with the New Delhi theatre group Pierrot's Troupe.

In the early 2000s, he played the Indian independence activist Maulana Azad in a one-man Urdu-language play.

In Ghalib In Delhi, he played the role of Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib.

He was the lead actor in "Once Upon A Time", a collection of five short stories presented as vignettes, directed by Sujata Soni Bali and co-starring prominent stage actor and TV personality Sunit Tandon. The production was last staged in Mumbai on 17 June 2017.

Writing and journalism

Alter has written books including The Longest Race, Rerun at Rialto, and The Best in the World. He was also a sports journalist with a special interest in cricket, a game on which he has written extensively in publications such as Sportsweek, Outlook, Cricket Talk, Sunday Observer, Firstpost, Citizen, and Debonair. He played cricket for a film industry team MCC (Match Cut Club), which includes Naseeruddin Shah, Satish Shah, Vishal Bhardwaj, Aamir Khan, Nana Patekar, Bhupinder Singh and Amarinder Sangha. He also wrote on cricket in Indian publications. In 1996, he was invited by friend Siraj Syed to Singapore, to do cricket commentary in Hindi, for Indian viewers, on the sports TV channel, ESPN. In addition to acting, Alter also ventured into a direction - he directed a one-shot episode for the short-lived series Yule Love Stories in the mid-1990s - and was a sports journalist in the late 1980s to early 1990s. He has written three books: one non-fiction, and two fiction. Before his sudden death, Alter had just announced his inaugural feature film as a director called Rerun at Rialto, which was based on the book written by him.

Personal life

Alter married Carol Evans, a fellow Woodstock School student, in 1977. The marriage produced two children: son Jamie and daughter Afshaan. Jamie has worked as a cricket writer for ESPNcricinfo and CricBuzz, and was also the sports editor of The Times of India. As a cricket enthusiast himself, Tom wrote columns for newspapers and journals for over ten years. He also worked as a journalist during the time and was the first to video interview Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar in 1988.

In September 2017, Alter was diagnosed with stage IV skin cancer (squamous cell carcinoma). His thumb had been amputated a year earlier because of the condition. He died on 29 September at his residence in Mumbai. A statement released on behalf of his family read: "It is with sadness we announce the death of our beloved Tom Alter, actor, writer, director, Padma Shri, and our dear husband and father. Tom passed away Friday night at home with his family and close family members in attendance."

Filmography

Film

TV series

References

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3. ^ "No 'Alter'native". Screen. 9 May 2008. Archived from the original on 1 March 2010.
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5. ^ "Features / Metro Plus: Tom Tom". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 9 August 2008. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
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7. "Woodstock School News". Woodstock School India. 2 January 2008. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011.
8. "Tom Alter". Paritosh Uttam. Archived from the original on 22 May 2006. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
9. ^ Guftagoo with Tom Alter (in Hindi). Rajya Sabha TV. 23 August 2016. Archived from the original on 9 June 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
10. "Curriculum Vitae of Marty Chen" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 August 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
11. Zaman, Rana Siddiqui (13 October 2014). "Delhi is my second home: Tom Alter". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 13 October 2014. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
12. "A Haryana town friend recalls the night show that led Tom Alter the teacher to show biz". October 2017. Archived from the original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
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14. ^ "Metro Plus Delhi / Personality : Tom, unaltered". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 11 October 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
15. "Hamari Paltan: The last film of veteran actor, to release on April 27". United News of India. 23 April 2018. Archived from the original on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
16. Padnani, Amisha (6 October 2017). "Tom Alter, Blue-Eyed Star of Bollywood Films, Dies at 67". The New York Times.
17. "Actor Tom Alter as Mirza Ghalib". Little Black Book. Archived from the original on 15 September 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
18. "Tom Alter". The Times of India. 30 April 2012. Archived from the original on 15 July 2012. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
19. "Jamie Alter - IMDb". imdb.com. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
20. "Author: Jamie Alter". espncricinfo.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
21. "News Articles by Jamie Alter". cricbuzz.com. Archived from the original on 15 September 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
22. "Jamie Alter: Times of India Reporter". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 30 September 2017. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
23. "Tom Alter - Back In The News". informationmadness.com. 4 May 2011. Archived from the original on 8 May 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
24. Chandawarkar, Rahul (28 August 2005). "Telling a story in different ways". The Hindu. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
25. "Tom Alter diagnosed with skin cancer". The Hindu. 11 September 2017. Archived from the original on 13 September 2017. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
26. "Tom Alter Battling Stage 4 Skin Cancer, Confirms Son Jamie". NDTV. 11 September 2017. Archived from the original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
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29. ^ "Tom's encounters with icons who Altered his life". The Times of India. 14 November 2012. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
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32. "IFFK to screen seven films in 'Indian Cinema Now' section". The Indian Express. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
33. "Latest Entertainment News: Celebrity News, Latest News on TV Reality Shows, Breaking News & Trending Stories". Archived from the original on 11 October 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2016.

External links

• Tom Alter at IMDb

• Biography
• India

• Media from Commons
• Data from Wikidata

• 1950 births
• 2017 deaths
• Indian columnists
• Indian cricket coaches
• Indian male film actors
• Indian male stage actors
• Indian male television actors
• Indian sports journalists
• Assamese-language actors
• Indian Presbyterians
• Indian people of American descent
• People from Mussoorie
• Male actors from Mumbai
• Male actors in Hindi cinema
• Film and Television Institute of India alumni
• Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts
• Male actors in Gujarati-language films
• Indian people of English descent
• Indian people of Scottish descent
• Indian people of Swiss-German descent
• Male actors in Malayalam cinema
• Male actors in Kannada cinema
• Actors of European descent in Indian films
• Deaths from cancer in India
• Indian amputees
• Actors with disabilities
• Schoolteachers from Uttarakhand