Mussoorie mourns actor Tom Alter’s death

Tom Alter (File Photo)

“Mussoorie lost one who contributed to a large measure to put Landour (in Mussoorie) to the world map,” Ganesh Saili, an author from Mussoorie who shared a natural camaraderie with the 67-year-old actor who succumbed to skin cancer on Friday night in Mumbai, said.

To Mussoorie, the actor of American descent who was born and brought up in Mussoorie, was one of its own, and to mourn his death a prayer meeting was organised in the town on Saturday. “Cricket was his Cleopatra,” Saili recalls while speaking of Alter’s undying love for the sport.

According to locals the actor – who was fluent in Urdu, Hindi, and Hindustani – visited the town often. However, he was not seen in the Mussoorie hills for over a year due to cancer.

Anmol Jain, a journalist from Mussoorie, mentioned about Alter’s love and interest in Mussoorie. “Organising a high-altitude marathon from Woodstock school to Buranskhanda was a dream that he often discussed,” Jain recalls, adding that Alter would say that the high-altitude marathon could bring Mussoorie on the global map.