Thomas Beach Alter, also known as Tom Alter was an Indian actor of American descent. He was best known for his work in Hindi cinema and the Indian theatre. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.
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.
On his 2nd death anniversary, here’s looking at lesser-known facts about the late actor:
- Tom 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 India from Ohio, U.S., in November 1916, when they arrived in Madras. From there, they moved to and settled in Lahore, in present-day Pakistan. His father was born in Sialkot.
- After India’s Partition, 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, they finally settled in 1954 in Rajpur, Uttarakhand, then a small town located between Dehradun and Mussoorie.
- After graduating from FTII, Alter headed straight to 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 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
- 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.
Tom passed away on, 29 September 2017 at home with his family and close family members in attendance.
