MUMBAI: The world of Hindi entertainment on Saturday mourned the loss of actor Tom Alter to skin cancer. A “Caucasian artiste who was more Indian than many Indians”, a gentleman who lamented the decline of cricket from a gentleman’s game into the rougher T20 format.

The last rites will be performed at a church in Malabar Hill Wednesday.

Audiences warmed up to the actor way back in Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977) where he recited khaalis Urdu poetry by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. He inherited his love for the language from his father and learnt from Jalib.

On Saturday fans ranging from prime minister Modi to President Ram Nath Kovind, co-actors Rishi Kapoor and Anil Kapoor, as well as Mahesh Bhatt, Riteish Deshmukh, Arjun Kapoor and Athiya Shetty paid tribute. Alter’s wife Carol was Athiya’s English teacher.

Theatre director Feroz Khan saw two plays of his, one was ‘Waiting For Godot ‘alongside Naseeruddin Shah and Benjamin Gilani, the other a full rehearsal of ‘Mirza Ghalib’ in New Delhi. “Each time I gathered that he was so hardworking, so committed to theatre. He also did a play by (Congress politician) Salman Khurshid called ‘Sons of Babar’. His Hindustani was flawless. It must have been difficult to speak broken Hindi in stereotypical firangi roles,” Khan says.

The two often met at Prithvi Theatre. “Tom Alter had a peculiar habit. He did not own a car I think, but always had a taxi in reserve to take him around,” Khan laughs. “He was a well rounded personality, well read, well informed, with immense social grace and intellect.”

In fact commemtator Harsha Bhogle paid a moving tribute to his friend on social media as he recalled a game at Edgbaston where he was commentating for television and Alter was savouring the Indian victory in the ground below.

“So many images are breaking through this thunderstorm and flashing before my eyes. You are talking about hockey, about athletics, about the Olympics, and oh yes, about cricket, even bemoaning what T20 is doing to us. And I see that night in Dehradun where you had us engrossed with your mastery on stage, all in impeccable Urdu. So many images, all of a remarkable kind man,” he wrote.

Tom Alter’s son Jamie, a sports journalist who inherited his father’s passion, and his daughter Afshaan, received condolences from the film and sporting fraternity.