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Tom Alter (born 1950) is an Indian actor of American origin. As a thespian and television actor, he is most prominently known for his work in Hindi language Indian cinema. He is married to Carol Evans, his classmate. They have two children and live in Mumbai. He is an Indian citizen. His father was born in Sialkot.

[edit] Biography

A native of Mussoorie of Uttarakhand state in India,^[1] Tom Alter is the son of American missionaries and has lived for years between the metropolis of Mumbai and the Himalayan hill station of Landour. As a child, he studied Hindi and Urdu and, as a result, has occasionally been referred to as the "Blue-eyed saheb with the impeccable Hindi." In 2008 he was awarded Padma Shri by the Indian government.

Alter is fluent in Hindi and knowledgeable of Indian culture. He has worked for noted filmmakers like Satyajit Ray in Shatranj Ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) and is remembered for his role as a British officer in Kranti. In Sardar, the 1993 film biography of Indian leader Sardar Patel, which focused on the events surrounding the partition and independence of India, Tom Alter portrayed Lord Mountbatten of Burma. He has also played Indian characters in Indian television series, such as the long-running Junoon, in which he was the sadistic mob lord Keshav Kalsi. He also acted in Hollywood movie One Night with the King with Peter O'Toole.

Alter has written such books as The Longest Race, Rerun at Rialto, The Best in the world, and is 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 and Debonair. He plays 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.

In 1996 he appeared in the Assamese-language film Adajya, and in 2007 acted in the theatrical reproduction of William Dalrymple's City of Djinns alongside Zohra Sehgal. He also appeared in a solo play 'Maulana', based on Maulana Azadfor which he has received much critical acclaim. He has also received praise for his role in the art film Ocean of An Old Man, which has been screened at film festivals around the world. Alter's first cousin Stephen Alter, also born and raised in India, is a notable author and teacher. Both are graduates of Woodstock School, Mussoorie. Alter has also worked as the red robe guru in Mukesh Khanna's production Shaktiman (1998-2002)

Tom taught at a mission school in Jagadhri (Haryana) for $50 a month before taking the film route. He loved his job and the small town Jagadhri. In his own words, “There was something very warm about Jagadhri. I remained a teacher there until the day I watched Rajesh Khanna romance Sharmila in Aaradhna. That was the beginning of my addiction to cinema.”^[2]

He has been featured in the New York Times. ^[3]

[edit] External links

• Interview
• Interview
• Photograph of Tom Alter and indication of 1950 as his year of birth
• Tom Alter at the Internet Movie Database

[edit] References