Rest in peace Padma Shri Tom Alter, Hindi cinema's blue-eyed saheb who recited Urdu poetry

Actor par excellence, director, sports journalist and writer Padma Shri Tom Alter passed away on Saturday morning, losing a battle with skin cancer. He will be fondly remembered as the Indian film, theatre and TV actor of American descent who loved cricket, spoke chaste Urdu and left audiences impressed with his magnetic presence on screen and stage.

Updated on:

02 Oct 2017, 4:26 am

2 min read

Tom Alter was born to American missionary parents in Landour, Mussoorie and studied at Woodstock School and Yale University and has a gold medal in acting from Pune’s Film and Television Institute (FTII). His work, spanning over 300 films, saw him acting in Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Telugu and Bengali films. Alter's first release was Ramanand Sagar's Charas in 1976. Among his notable roles are Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Shyam Benegal's Junoon, Manoj Kumar's magnum opus Kranti, Raj Kapoor's Ram Teri Ganga Maili, and Mahesh Bhatt's Aashiqui. He also acted in several foreign films - Richard Attenborough's Gandhi and One Night with the King. (YouTube screengrab | Alter in 'The Bookseller from the Mountains')

Tom Alter, who had amputated his thumb due to phase IV skin cancer, told the Hindustan Times before his death: “All is well. I have never stopped in any direction – television, theatre, films… since ’74, non-stop! I have been doing so many things. Right now there are 20 films of mine which are ready to release. I have recently shot a powerful web series in Goa, and now about to start shooting a new film with Ram Gopal Varma.” (PTI File Photo)

Along with fellow theatre powerhouses Naseeruddin Shah (in picture: right) and Benjamin Gilani, Tom Alter formed a theatre group called Motley Productions in 1977. Their first play was Samuel Beckett's absurdist drama 'Waiting for Godot', which was staged at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai, on July 29, 1979. He is a regular at Mumbai's iconic Prithvi Theatre, his last stage outing being an adaptation of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer's 'My Grandad had an Elephant', which was performed on June 7, 2011. (PTI File Photo)

Tom Alter was the first person to video interview cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar. He has often said that sports was his first love and that acting and Urdu poetry was secondary. He has written on sports for several leading publications like Outlook and Sportsweek. His son Jamie Alter is incidentally the Sports Editor for Times of India. (YouTube screengrab)

Tom Alter is recognised for playing diverse roles in several popular Hindi television shows, particularly on national broadcaster Doordarshan. He is primarily known for his role as evil don Keshav Kalsi in 'Junoon' (translation: Obsession), which was broadcast on Doordarshan in 1994. It ran for five years (510 episodes), setting a record for the then longest running programme during prime time on Doordarshan. (File Photo | poster of DD's 2014 serial 'Khamosh ka Afsana', starring Tom Alter)

Did you know Tom Alter played Mahaguru, the red-robed saint, in Mukesh Khanna's hugely popular 'Shaktimaan', an adaptation of the equally famous comic. It ran from 1997 to 2005. (YouTube screengrab)

Two of Tom Alter's notable stage performances are as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (in picture) in 'Maulana Azad', the Indian National Congress leader who rose to prominence during the freedom struggle, and as erstwhile Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib in 'Ghalib in Delhi'. (YouTube screengrab)

Tom Alter has recited Urdu poetry at several venues. His love for the language is well-documented. Alter, who belonged to a poetically inclined family, would be made to read the Bible in Urdu by his father, a Christian missionary priest. Later, he would play great Urdu literary figures as Ghalib, Sahir Ludhianvi and Bahadur Shah Zafar on stage. (PTI File Photo | Tom Alter at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Spring Summer 2012, in New Delhi)

Tom Alter is also a prolific writer of three books - two fiction 'The Longest Race', Rerun at Rialto, and one non-fiction 'The Best in the World'. His first cousin is the critically-acclaimed writer Stephen Alter. (PTI File Photo | Tom Alter being greeted by Kiran Bedi and Anna Hazare during their hunger strike for the Jan Lokpal Bill in Delhi)