Tom Alter (born 1950) is an Indian actor of American origin. As a thespian and television actor, he is most prominently known for his work in Hindi language Indian cinema.
A native of the small Uttarakhand city of Mussoorie, Tom Alter is the son of American missionaries and has lived for years between the metropolis of Mumbai and the Himalayan hill station of Landour. As a child, he studied Hindi and Urdu and, as a result, has occasionally been referred to as the "Blue-eyed saheb with the impeccable Hindi." He has recently been awarded Padmasri by the Indian government
Alter is uniquely talented in his fluency in Hindi and knowledge of Indian culture. He has worked for noted filmmakers like Satyajit Ray in Shatranj Ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) and Ismail Merchant. 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. He has also played Indian characters in Indian television series, such as the long-running Junoon, in which he was the sadistic mob lord Keshav Kalsi. Also acted in hollywood movie One Night With The King with the legendary Peter O'Toole.
He is a writer with books like The Longest Race,Rerun at Rialto,The Best in the world,and also a sports journalist with a special interest in Cricket,a game on which he has written extensively in publications like Sportsweek,Outlook,Cricket talk,Sunday Observer,Debonair,etc.He plays cricket for a film industry team MCC(Match Cut Club),consisting of Naseeruddin Shah,Satish Shah,Vishal Bhardwaj,Aamir Khan,Nana Patekar,Bhupinder Singh,Amarinder Sangha,among others. In 1996 he appeared in the Assamese-language film Adajya, and in 2007 acted in the theatrical reproduction of William Dalrymple's City of Djinns alongside Zohra Sehgal. A solo play 'Maulana',based on Maulana Azad,is also running to rave reviews in India and abroad. Tom Alter's first cousin Stephen Alter, also born and raised in India, is a notable author and teacher. Tom and Stephen are graduates of Woodstock School, Mussoorie.