CHICAGO (AP) — Mike Nussbaum, considered America's oldest professional actor with a prolific stage career and roles in films such as “Field of Dreams” and “Men in Black,” has died. He was 99.
He died of old age at his home in Chicago on Saturday, just days before his 100th birthday, his daughter Karen Nussbaum told The Associated Press.
“He was a good father and a good man who raised us to care about other people, to respect other people and to care about justice,” she said.
Mike Nussbaum has been honored several times in recent years by the Actor's Equity Association union as the country's oldest professional actor. When asked about his status as a working nonagenarian over the years, Nussbaum said he simply enjoyed the work.
“I am gifted and fortunate to still be able to do what I enjoy most in life,” he told WBEZ Chicago in 2019 at age 94. “As long as I can, I will.”
Nussbaum was born in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood in December 1923 and initially played in summer camps. It wasn't until he was 40 that he devoted himself fully to acting and worked as an exterminator for a while. He received his equity card in the 1970s.
Nussbaum spent more than 50 years on stages in the Chicago area, including at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Among many other roles, he played Shylock in a 2005 production of The Merchant of Venice and Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew.
In 1984, he won a Drama Desk Award for his performance in David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, which won the Pulitzer Prize that same year. Nussbaum worked with Mamet often over the years.
Nussbaum continued performing into his 90s, including the role of Albert Einstein in the 2017 play “Relativity” at the Northlight Theater in suburban Skokie, where he also briefly served as artistic director.
“His genius was that you couldn't tell he was acting,” said BJ Jones, a longtime friend and colleague who is currently artistic director at Northlight. “His truthfulness was unparalleled. You never saw him sweat. He wasn't trying to draw attention to himself. ”
Although primarily a stage actor, his film credits included a role as a school principal in “Field of Dreams” and in “Men in Black” as the gentle Rosenberg, whose head opens in a crucial scene to reveal a small alien creature brings.
A private memorial service is planned. There will be a public memorial service next year.
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