CHICAGO — Mike Nussbaum, reputed because the oldest skilled actor in America with a prolific stage profession and roles in movies together with “Discipline of Goals” and “Males in Black,” has died. He was 99.

He died of previous age at his Chicago dwelling on Saturday, simply days earlier than his one hundredth birthday, his daughter, Karen Nussbaum, instructed The Related Press.

“He was an excellent father and an excellent man who raised us to care about different individuals and respect different individuals and care about justice,” she stated.

Mike Nussbaum was acknowledged by the Actor’s Fairness Affiliation union a number of occasions up to now a number of years because the oldest skilled actor within the nation. When requested about his standing as a working nonagenarian through the years, Nussbaum stated he merely loved the work.

“I’m gifted and fortunate to nonetheless be capable to do the factor that’s the most enjoyable for me in life,” he instructed WBEZ Chicago in 2019 when he was 94 years previous. “So long as I can do it, I’ll.”

Born in December 1923 in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood, Nussbaum first acted in summer time camps. He didn’t pursue appearing full time till he was in his 40s, working for a time as an exterminator. He obtained his Fairness card within the Nineteen Seventies.

Nussbaum spent greater than 50 years on levels within the Chicago space, together with on the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. He performed Shylock in a 2005 manufacturing of “The Service provider of Venice” and Gremio in “The Taming of the Shrew,” amongst many different roles.

In 1984, he received a Drama Desk Award for his efficiency in David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross,” which received a Pulitzer Prize the identical yr. Nussbaum labored with Mamet usually through the years.

Nussbaum carried out into his 90s, together with a 2017 position as Albert Einstein within the play “Relativity” at Northlight Theatre in suburban Skokie, the place he additionally served briefly as creative director.

“His genius was that you just couldn’t inform he was appearing,” stated B.J. Jones, a longtime pal and colleague who’s present creative director at Northlight. “His degree of reality was unparalleled. You by no means noticed him sweat. He wasn’t making an attempt to attract consideration to himself. ”

Although he was primarily a stage actor, his movie credit included a college principal in “Discipline of Goals” and in “Males in Black” as Mild Rosenberg, whose head opens throughout a pivotal scene to disclose a small alien creature.