Mumbai: On late Friday night, veteran actor Tom Alter passed away after battling with stage four skin cancer at the age of 67. Tom Alter has appeared in many Bollywood as well as Hollywood films. His role in the film Kranti has always been remembered as one of his finest performances in his career. Moreover, his notable roles are Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Shyam Benegal’s Junoon, Raj Kapoor’s Ram Teri Ganga Maili, and Mahesh Bhatt’s Aashiqui.
Also read: Tom Alter, Padma Shri awardee and veteran film actor dies at 67, after long battle with cancer
However, many people don’t know about this veteran actor Tom Alter. Thus, late us remember late Tom Alter and his 10 unknown things.
- Reportedly, Tom Alter’s grandparents had come to India from Ohio, United States, in 1916. The actor was born on 22nd June 1950. After the partition, Alter’s parents moved to India and settled in Rajpur, Uttar Pradesh, a small town located between Dehradun and Mussoorie in 1954.
- Tom had much affection towards the Hindi language as he speaks impeccable Hindi and Urdu. Alter was, in fact, fond of Urdu Shayari! Tom was also referred to as the Blue-eyed saheb with impeccable Hindi.
- Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore’s super hit film Aaradhana had turned out to be the life changer for Tom Alter. After seeing powerful performances of Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore, Tom decided to pursue his career into films and televisions.
- Tom was one of the few versatile personality who had well-versed skills into direction as well as writing.
- Many of us don’t know that Tom was a Padma Shri award holder.
- Despite having multiple talents, Tom had also worked as a TV presenter as he was the first person to interview Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar for TV when the cricketer was yet to debut for India.
- While doing theatre, Tom had formed a theatre group called Motley Productions along with Naseeruddin Shah and Benjamin Gilani in 1977.
- Alter has written books including The Longest Race, Rerun at Rialto, and The Best in the World.
- Tom Alter married Carol Evans in 1977. They have two children together: son Jamie and daughter Afshaan.
- Tom Alter was a life member of International Film And Television Club & International Film And Television Research Centre of Asian Academy of Film & Television.
May your soul rest in peace! Tom Alter
