Tom Alter Age, Wife, Family, Children, Biography, Death Cause & More

Bio
Real Name/Full Name	Thomas Beach Alter
Nickname	Tom
Profession	Actor, Writer, Sports Journalist
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)	in centimeters- 180 cm in meters- 1.80 m in feet inches- 5’ 11”
Weight (approx.)	in kilograms- 80 kg in pounds- 176 lbs
Eye Colour	Blue
Hair Colour	White
Personal Life
Date of Birth	22 June 1950
Birth Place	Mussoorie, Uttar Pradesh, India (now in Uttarakhand)
Date of Death	29 September 2017
Place of Death	Mumbai (at his residence)
Age (at the time of death)	67 Years
Death Cause	Skin Cancer
Zodiac sign/Sun sign	Cancer
Nationality	Indian (Ancestors from America)
Ethnicity	English and Scottish
Hometown	Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India
School	Woodstock School, Mussoorie
College	Studied at Yale, US for a year and left Film and Television Institute of India in Pune (1972-1974, under Roshan Taneja)
Educational Qualification	Graduate
Debut	Film: Charas (1976)
Family	Father- Not Known (a Teacher) Mother- Not Known Brother- John (Poet and a Teacher) Sister- Martha Chen (Teacher at Harvard University) Cousin Brother- Stephen Alter (Author)
Religion	Christianity
Hobbies	Reading Urdu Shayari, Playing and watching Cricket
Controversies	After MS Dhoni announced his retirement (from Test matches) in the midway of the India-Australia Test series, Tom Alter wrote a controversial statement on FirstPost. He wrote- “He should be banned from representing India ever again. He has not only broken his contract, he has broken a sacred bond with those of us who truly love Indian cricket and he does not give a damn. Why? Because he is the corporate favourite, the boss’ and the bosses’ favourite, and for them losing or winning is not important, it is all ‘brand’ and money and such total and utter rubbish,”
Favourite Things
Favourite Actor	Rajesh Khanna
Favourite Actress	Sharmila Tagore
Favourite Film	Aradhana (1969)
Favourite Sport	Cricket
Girls, Affairs and More
Marital Status	Married/Unmarried
Affairs/Girlfriends	Carol Evans (Carol and Tom were classmates in Woodstock School, Mussoorie)
Wife/Spouse	Carol Evans
Marriage Date	Year 1977
Children	Son- Jamie Alter (Sports Writer and Editor) Daughter- Afshaan

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”.