Tom Olter ( born Tom Alter ; June 22, 1950 , Massouri , Uttar Pradesh , September 29, 2017 , Mumbai ) is an Indian theater, film and television actor, known for her roles in films in Hindi and English. In 2008 he was awarded the fourth highest civilian award of India - the Order of Padma Sri .
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Biography
Tom Olter was born on June 22, 1950 in the town of Massouri , Uttar Pradesh (now Uttarakhand ) and became the third child in the family after his brother John and his sister . His father, James Payne Olter, was the son of Presbyterian missionaries who came to India from Ohio in 1916 and settled in Lahore [2] [3] . After the division of the country, they stayed there, while James Olter and his wife Barbara Beach moved to North India in 1945 [4] .
Olter graduated from the , an international boarding school near the Himalayas , in 1968 and at the age of 18 left for the United States, where he entered Yale University . However, he studied there for just a year and a half, after which he dropped out and returned to India [3] [4] . On his return, he served for six months as a teacher at St. Thomas’s school in Jagadhari , Haryana [5] . At this time, he often watched movies with friends in the cinema and, seeing the drama “ Devotion ” with the participation of Rajesh Khanna , had a burning desire to become an actor. In 1972, Olter entered the , who graduated in 1974 with a gold medal [6] . To prove the seriousness of his intentions to build a career in India, after graduating from acting school, he refused an American passport [3] .
Thanks to , the mother of his classmate Shabana , introduced his first film role to the movie. However, for the first time on a big screen, Olter appeared in the secondary role of a customs official fighting drug trafficking in the film , which was released a year before Saheb Bahadur . His next works were the loving poetry in Urdu captain Weston in the " Chess Players " Satyajita Raya and the Kannada-language film Kanneshwara Rama [6] .
In 1978, Tom married Carol Evans, in the marriage with whom their son Jamie Olter and daughter Afshan Olter Bёthram were born [3] .
In 1979, together with former fellow students Nasiruddin Shah and he founded the theater troupe Motley Productions, and their first play was Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett . He also worked with the Pierrot group from Delhi. His most famous stage productions include a solo piece in Urdu for two and a half hours, “Maulana”, “Babur ke Aulaad”, “Lal Qile ka Aakhri Mushaira”, “Ghalib ke Khat”, “Teesveen Shatabdi”, “Copenhagen” , “In Ghalib In Delhi” and the theatrical adaptation of the “City of Jinn” by William Dalrymple [2] .
In the following years, Olter starred in the films (1979) Syama Benegal , (1981) Manoj Kumar, Life for the Love (1990) Mahesh Bhatt . He also appeared in a thirty-second role as a doctor in the British-Indian drama Gandhi by Richard Attenborough . European appearance contributed to the fact that the actor was offered mainly the role of foreigners, police, murderers, priests, slippery diplomat, tea planters and various British colonists [3] [4] . Among the rare roles that were not affected by the actor’s origin are the brother of the main character in “The Ganges, your waters are muddied ” (1985) Raja Kapoor , the leader of the gang Musa in “ Birds ” (1989) Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Abul Kalam Azad in Loknayak (2004 ) Prakash Jha [2] . In addition to films in Hindi and English, he also starred in tapes in Bengali , Assamese , Gujarati , Telugu , Tamil and Kumaoni [6] .
Olter has appeared in several popular TV shows, including Junoon, Zabaan Sambhalke, Bharat EK Khoj, Shaktimaan, Captain Vyom and Yahaan Ke Hum Sikandar . His latest television appearance was in the soap opera Rishton Ka Chakravyuh , and in the movie, the drama Sargoshiyan with Alok Nath and Farida Jalal .
In the last years of his life, Olter was diagnosed with . In 2016, his condition required to amputate his thumb on his right hand. Despite this, he did not stop acting in films and performing on stage. In September of the following year, he was hospitalized with a diagnosis of fourth-stage skin cancer , but at the end of the month he was allowed to go home, where he died the next day, September 29, 2017 [8] [9] .
Notes
- ↑ Tom Alter, Padma Shri actor and writer, dies aged 67 // The Times of India - 2017. - ed. size: 3321702
- ↑ 1 2 3 Namrata Joshi. Tom Alter (22 June 1950 - 29 September 2017) (English) . The Hindu (30 September 2017). The date of appeal is January 16, 2018.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Amisha Padnani. Tom Alter, Blue-Eyed Star of Bollywood Films, Dies at 67 (eng.) . New York Times (6 October 2017). The date of appeal is January 16, 2018.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Sanjoy Hazarika. An American Star Of The Hindi Screen (eng.) . New York Times (6 July 1989). The date of appeal is January 16, 2018.
- ↑ Deepa Gupta. Tom Alter: It is still very much alive in their hearts . Firstpost (12 November 2016). The date of appeal is January 16, 2018.
- 2 1 2 3 Veteran actor Tom Alter dead at 67 (eng.) . The Hindu Business Line (207-09-30). The date of appeal is January 16, 2018.
- ↑ Rana Siddiqui Zaman. Tom Alter - My first break (English) . The Hindu (July 1, 2010). The date of appeal is January 16, 2018.
- Ctor Actor Tom Alter dies of skin cancer at 67 (Eng.) . Hindustan Times (30 September 2017). The date of appeal is January 16, 2018.
- ↑ Gautam Chintamani. Tom Alter passes away: Seasoned actor played 'angrez afsar' and Gandhi with equal elan . firstpost (30 September 2017). The date of appeal is January 16, 2018.