CHICAGO — Mike Nussbaum, reputed because the oldest skilled actor in America with a prolific stage profession and roles in movies together with “Area 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 a hundredth birthday, his daughter, Karen Nussbaum, advised The Related Press.

“He was a superb father and a superb man who raised us to care about different folks and respect different folks 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 over time, Nussbaum stated he merely loved the work.

“I’m gifted and fortunate to nonetheless be capable of do the factor that’s the most enjoyable for me in life,” he advised 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 season camps. He didn’t pursue performing full time till he was in his 40s, working for a time as an exterminator. He acquired his Fairness card within the 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 12 months. Nussbaum labored with Mamet usually over time.

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

“His genius was that you just couldn’t inform he was performing,” stated B.J. Jones, a longtime pal and colleague who’s present inventive director at Northlight. “His stage of fact 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 faculty principal in “Area of Goals” and in “Males in Black” as Mild Rosenberg, whose head opens throughout a pivotal scene to disclose a small alien creature.