'Men in Black' Actor Mike Nussbaum Has Died
The actor was just six days away from becoming a centenarian.
Legendary actor Mike Nussbaum passed away on Saturday at his home in Chicago, according to a report by The Chicago Sun-Times. Nussbaum was 99 years old and was just days away from his 100th birthday. Fans are celebrating his long and diverse career on social media.
Nussbaum's daughter Karen Nussbaum confirmed news of his passing to reporters, citing his cause of death as simply "old age." She said that she was by his side when he passed. Nussbaum was a major presence in the Chicago theater community, which often shares a lot of its talent with Hollywood. However, fans around the country and around the world likely know him better for film roles including Men In Black where he played the alien Gentle Rosenburg – a memorable performance for a pivotal plot point in that movie.
Nussbaum's career goes back decades before that on both the stage and the screen. His first movie credit was in The Monitors in 1969 as "exercise chief." He would later appear in movies including Fatal Attraction, Field of Dreams, Desperate Hours and Gladiator, among many others. Meanwhile, on TV he appeared in shows like The Equalizer, L.A. Law, Frasier and The X-Files.
Family, friends and locals remember Nussbaum best for his stage acting work which he spent half a century perfecting. Some of his notable performances reportedly include David Mamet's American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross and Smokefall. He was the first artistic director for the Northlight Theatre when it opened, and the current staff there memorialized him this week.
"It's the end of an era, the end of the Chicago school of acting," said the Northlight's current artistic director, B.J. Jones. Jones said that he saw Nussbaum just last Tuesday and that the veteran eagerly accepted a new script to read. "He said he was bored. Hilarious," Jones recalled, "but he was ready to go."
Nussbaum reflected on his own longevity just a few years ago in 2019 when he appeared in a production of Hamlet. He told the Sun-Times: "I'm lucky. Genetic luck. I work out and I try to eat sensibly. I gave up smoking about 50 years ago. It's just pure luck." The actor is getting some well-deserved praise on social media this week.
Nussbaum is is survived by his children Karen and Jack, and his second wife Julie. His first wife, actress Annette Brenner, and their daughter Susan preceded him in death.