Tom Alter

Some Lesser Known Facts About Tom Alter

• Did Tom Alter smoke?: Not Known

• Did Tom Alter drink alcohol?: Not Known

• Tom’s grandparents migrated from Ohio, United States to India in November 1916. They lived in Chennai, then moved to Lahore.

• After the partition of India and Pakistan, his grandparents stayed in Pakistan while his parents moved to India, they lived in Allahabad, Jabalpur, Saharanpur, then finally settled in Rajpur (near Mussoorie).

• His parents started “Massihi Dhyaan Kendra”, an ashram in Rajpur.

• Before taking interest in acting, Tom worked as a teacher and a Cricket coach in St. Thomas School, Jagadhri, Haryana and Woodstock School, Mussoorie. He also worked in a hospital in US.

• His interest in acting developed after watching the film Aradhana (1969), he used to watch this film 3 times a week during those days with his friends.

• Actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Benjamin Gilani and Shabana Azmi were Tom’s batchmate at FTII, Pune.

• Apart from acting, Tom had a keen interest in writing, he is the author of famous books like- The Best in the World, Rerun at Rialto, and The Longest Race.

• He was also a sports journalist, he used to write for Sportsweek, Cricket Talk, Sunday Observer, Outlook and Debonair.

• He also did Hindi commentary in a few matches for the channel, ESPN.

• Tom Alter was the first person to take video interview of Sachin Tendulkar in 1989.

• Tom was awarded Padma Shri in 2008 by the Indian government.

• In September 2017, Tom was diagnosed with Stage IV skin cancer. He died on 29th September 2017.

• He is known for his command over Hindi and Urdu, he can also write in Urdu. Because of his fluency in the Hindi and Urdu language, he is often referred as “Blue-eyed Saheb”.

• Apart from Hindi films, Tom also worked in Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Assamese and Kumaoni films.

• He is remembered for his remarkable roles in moves Kranti, Junoon, Shatranj Ke Khilari and many more.   

• He is also remembered for his Television serial roles in Shaktimaan, Captain Vyom et cetera.