Tom Alter

Tom Alter Biography

Tom Alter is an Indian actor, who predominantly appears in Bollywood movies. He is also a theatre personality, a thespian and a well-known television actor. For his overall contributions to Indian art and cinema, he was honoured with Padma Shri in the year 2008. He is a native of Mussoorie, Uttarakhand. Aashiqui, Shatrang ke khiladi, Junoon, Parinda, Asambhav, Veer-Zaara, Bheja fry, Gandhi, Kranti, The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey and Sardar are a few of his most memorable Bollywood roles. He has also acted in television serials like Captain Vyom and Shaktimaan and he is mostly known for negative shaded and foreigner roles. Alter has also authored a few books like - The Longest Race, Rerun at Rialto and The Best in the world.

Tom Alter is the son of American Christian missionaries of English and Scottish ancestry who settled in Mumbai. His brother John is a poet and a teacher and he has one elder sister too. He studied Hindi since childhood and often referred to as the "Blue-eyed saheb with impeccable Hindi." He studied at the Film and Television Institute of India. He was inspired a lot by first superstar of Indian screen, Rajesh Khanna and this hero’s romantic style in the early 1970’s influenced young Tom a lot to join Bollywood film industry.

He taught at St. Thomas school in Jagadhri of Haryana and also practised as a sports teacher who coaches cricket, before his entrance to movies. He watched Rajesh Khanna romancing Sharmila in Aaradhana during this time and like every youngster of late 1960’s, he too dreamt to become an actor. Alter is fluent in Hindi and knowledgeable of Indian culture. Yet as he possesses mannerisms and appearance of a foreigner, he got type casted as a British in most of his movies. Shatranj ke khiladi, Kranti and Gandhi are a few to mention.  

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Updated: February 18, 2014