Tom Alter, Blue-Eyed Star of Bollywood Films, Dies at 67
Mr. Alter and Mr. Attenborough crossed paths again in the Oscar-winning "Gandhi" (1982), directed by Mr. Attenborough,
in which Mr. Alter played the British doctor who whispers to Gandhi (Ben Kingsley) that his wife has died.
And earlier that decade he gave himself the role he always wanted — a native Indian — when he performed a
solo play in Urdu called "Maulana Azad," in which he portrayed the Indian freedom fighter of that name.
On television, he was known for his role as the mob boss Don Keshav Kalsi in the 1990s series "Junoon" ("Obsession"), which, he told the newspaper The Hindu in 2005,
was "by far my best role in front of the camera." In 2008 he was given the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honors, for his contribution to the arts.
In Satyajit Ray‘s 1977 "Shatranj Ke Khiladi" ("The Chess Players"), he was the introspective Captain Weston, who, with his love for Urdu poetry, sympathizes
with the very rulers of India he is faced with overthrowing as the confidential assistant to a general played by Richard Attenborough.
In 2013, at a news media event for the mini-series "Samvidhaan: The Making of the Constitution of India,"
in which he portrayed Maulana Azad, a journalist asked him how he was able to speak Hindi so well.
"You name it, I’ve played them all," he told The New York Times in 1989.