Tom Alter
Alter in 2016
Born	Thomas Beach Alter (1950-06-22)22 June 1950 Mussoorie,Uttar Pradesh (nowUttarakhand), 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)^[1] was an Indian actor.^[2] He was best known for his works inHindi cinema,^[3][4] and Indian theatre.^[5] In 2008, he was awarded thePadma Shri by theGovernment of India.^[6][7]

Born inMussoorie in present-dayUttarakhand,^[8] Alter was the son of AmericanPresbyterian missionaries ofEnglish,Scottish andSwiss German ancestry and lived for years inMumbai and theHimalayanhill station ofLandour. His grandparents migrated toMadras, India fromOhio, U.S., in November 1916.^[9] From there, they moved to and settled inLahore, in present-day Pakistan. His father was born inSialkot.^[9] After thePartition of India, Alter's family split into two; his grandparents chose to stay in Pakistan while his parents moved to India. After living inAllahabad,Jabalpur andSaharanpur, in 1954 they finally settled in Rajpur,Uttarakhand, then a small town located betweenDehradun and Mussoorie; Rajpur is now considered a suburb of Dehradun. Alter's siblings are older sisterMartha Chen, who teaches atHarvard University^[10] and brother John, a poet.^[3] AuthorStephen Alter is a first cousin.

As a child, Alter studiedHindi among other subjects in Mussoorie'sWoodstock School. At 18, Alter left for the U.S. for higher education and studied atYale 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, inHaryana. He worked there for six months, simultaneously coaching his students incricket. 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.^[9] It was during this time that he saw the Hindi filmAradhana, which proved to be a turning point in his career and drifted towards a career in acting, inspired by the lead actorRajesh Khanna.^[11] He headed toFilm and Television Institute of India (FTII) inPune, where he studied acting from 1972 to 1974 underRoshan Taneja.^[9]

After graduating from FTII, Alter headed straight to Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) and soon got his first break in theDev Anand starrerSaheb Bahadur (1977), directed byChetan Anand. However, his first release wasRamanand Sagar'sCharas. This was followed by roles inDes Pardes,Ram Bharose,Hum Kisise Kum Nahin andParvarish. He dubbed for actorJeevan for the innocent person of the twin roles played by Jeevan in the filmAmar Akbar Anthony.

Alter was fluent in Hindi andUrdu, and was knowledgeable about Indian culture. He could also read Urdu and was fond ofShayari.^[9] He worked for noted filmmakers likeSatyajit Ray inShatranj Ke Khilari and is remembered for his role as a British officer inKranti. He got the opportunity to act with his idolRajesh Khanna in the filmNaukri, directed byHrishikesh Mukherjee in 1978 and later inChetan Anand'sKudrat. InSardar, the 1993 film biography of Indian leaderSardar Patel, which focused on the events surrounding the partition and independence of India, Alter portrayedLord Mountbatten of Burma.^[12] He also acted in the Hollywood movieOne Night with the King withPeter O'Toole.

In 1996 he appeared in theAssamese filmAdajya, and in 2007 acted inWilliam Dalrymple'sCity of Djinns alongsideZohra Sehgal andManish Joshi Bismil. He also appeared in the solo playMaulana and the filmOcean of An Old Man.

Alter played the role of a doctor inBheja Fry, a comedy movie starringRajat Kapoor.

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

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

Some of his most famous movie roles have been as Musa inVidhu Vinod Chopra's acclaimed crime dramaParinda,Mahesh Bhatt's blockbuster romanceAashiqui, and Ketan Mehta'sSardar, in which Alter essayed the role of Lord Mountbatten.

His last film wasHamari Paltan (2018).^[13]

Alter appeared in many Indian television series, includingSamvidhaan.^{[citation needed]} InZabaan 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 seriesKhamosh Sa Afsana (as a Husain Baba), telecast onDoordarshan in 2014–15. In November 2014, he playedSahir Ludhianvi in a stage production based on the life and work of the famous Urdu poet and film lyricist. He also played a schoolteacher inYahan Ke Hum Sikandar.^[5] Alter has worked as the red robe guru inMukesh Khanna's TV productionShaktimaan (1998–2002).^[14] Also, he appeared in Contiloe & Cinevistaas showSsshhhh...Koi Hai in 2002–03. He played Indian characters in Indian television series, such as the long-runningJunoon, in which he was the sadistic mob lord Keshav Kalsi.^[15] 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.^[12]

In 1978, he, Naseeruddin Shah, andBenjamin Gilani formed a theatre group called Motley Productions.^[16] Their first play wasSamuel Beckett's playWaiting for Godot, which was staged atPrithvi Theatre, Bombay, on 29 July 1979. He went on to appear in many other plays at the theatre, including an adaptation ofVaikom Muhammad Basheer'sMy Grandad Had an Elephant which was performed on 7 June 2011. He has also worked with theNew Delhi theatre groupPierrot's Troupe.^[5]

In the early 2000s, he played the Indian independence activistMaulana Azad in a one-man Urdu-language play.^[17]

InGhalib In Delhi, he played the role ofUrdu poetMirza Ghalib.^[18]

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.

Alter has written books includingThe Longest Race,Rerun at Rialto, andThe Best in the World.^[19] He was also a sports journalist with a special interest in cricket, a game on which he has written extensively in publications such asSportsweek,Outlook,Cricket Talk,Sunday Observer,Firstpost,Citizen, andDebonair. Alter was the first tovideo interview Indian cricketerSachin Tendulkar in 1988.^[20]

Alter played cricket for a film industry team MCC (Match Cut Club), which includesNaseeruddin Shah,Satish Shah,Vishal Bhardwaj,Aamir Khan,Nana Patekar, Bhupinder Singh and Amarinder Sangha.^[21]

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.

Alter married Carol Evans, a fellow Woodstock School student, in 1977. They had two children together.^[22]

In September 2017, Alter was diagnosed with stage IVskin cancer (squamous cell carcinoma).^[23] His thumb had been amputated a year earlier because of the condition.^[24] He died on 29 September at his residence inMumbai.^[25][26]

• Tom Alter atIMDb

• 1950 births
• 2017 deaths
• Indian columnists
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• Indian male film actors
• Indian male stage actors
• Indian male television actors
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• Deaths from cancer in India
• Indian amputees
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• Schoolteachers from Uttarakhand
• Woodstock School, Mussoorie alumni

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