29 Facts About Tom Alter

Tom Alter was best known for his works in Hindi cinema, and Indian theatre.

Tom Alter's grandparents migrated to Madras, India from Ohio, US, in November 1916.

Tom Alter's siblings are older sister Martha Chen, who teaches at Harvard University and brother John, a poet.

At 18, Tom Alter left for the US for higher education and studied at Yale University for a year before returning to India upon losing interest in studies.

Tom Alter worked there for six months, simultaneously coaching his students in cricket.

Tom Alter headed to Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, where he studied acting from 1972 to 1974 under Roshan Taneja.

Tom Alter was fluent in Hindi and Urdu, and was knowledgeable about Indian culture.

Tom Alter worked for noted filmmakers like Satyajit Ray in Shatranj Ke Khilari and is remembered for his role as a British officer in Kranti.

Tom Alter 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, Tom Alter portrayed Lord Mountbatten of Burma.

Tom Alter acted in the Hollywood movie One Night with the King with Peter O'Toole.

Tom Alter appeared in the solo play Maulana and the film Ocean of An Old Man.

Tom Alter played the role of a doctor in Bheja Fry, a comedy movie starring Rajat Kapoor.

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

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 Tom Alter essayed the role of Lord Mountbatten.

Tom Alter played a schoolteacher in Yahan Ke Hum Sikandar.

Tom Alter has worked as the red robe guru in Mukesh Khanna's TV production Shaktimaan.

Tom Alter played Indian characters in Indian television series, such as the long-running Junoon, in which he was the sadistic mob lord Keshav Kalsi.

Tom Alter 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.

Tom Alter went on to appear in many other plays at the theatre, including an adaptation of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer's My Grandad Had an Elephant which was performed on 7 June 2011.

Tom Alter has worked with the New Delhi theatre group Pierrot's Troupe.

Tom Alter 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.

Tom Alter has written books including The Longest Race, Rerun at Rialto, and The Best in the World.

Tom Alter was 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, Firstpost, Citizen, and Debonair.

Tom Alter was the first to video interview Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar in 1988.

Tom Alter played cricket for a film industry team MCC, which includes Naseeruddin Shah, Satish Shah, Vishal Bhardwaj, Aamir Khan, Nana Patekar, Bhupinder Singh and Amarinder Sangha.

Tom Alter married Carol Evans, a fellow Woodstock School student, in 1977.

In September 2017, Tom Alter was diagnosed with stage IV skin cancer.

Tom Alter's thumb had been amputated a year earlier because of the condition.