When actor Tom Alter taught sports at a Jagadhri school

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, September 30

It was his stint as a sports teacher at Haryana’s Jagadhri town that moved the late Thomas Beach Alter, also known as Tom Alter, to join the film industry.

The charisma of Bollywood’s first superstar Rajesh Khanna had immensely influenced the young Tom.

In an early interview, Tom had said that the romantic superhit film ‘Aaradhana’ was his maiden experience of the Hindi cinema that shaped his mind to act in films. He had watched the iconic film with a friend at a theatre in Jagadhri town of Yamunanagar district.

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Before embarking on an acting career, Tom had joined St Thomas School at Jagadhri in 1969. His father, Jim Alter, was on its board of directors.

Paying tributes to the late actor, Chandana Lall, principal of the school run by a Christian missionary, said Tom worked there for nearly six months and was loved by his students.

She recalls Tom visiting the school recently to mark the golden jubilee celebrations of the institute and on its annual sports day.

At 18, Tom had enrolled at Yale University, where he studied for a year and a half before deciding to come back to India to join the Jagadhari school.

The 67-year-old actor had been diagnosed with skin cancer at an advanced stage and was being treated at a Mumbai hospital.