Men in Black actor Mike Nussbaum dead at 99 after spending a year in hospice care

Mike Nussbaum, best known for his role in 1997’s Men in Black, died on Saturday morning at his home in Chicago. 

He was just a week away from his 100th birthday.

The veteran character actor was one of the oldest working actors in the business and a longtime stalwart of the Chicago theater scene. 

His daughter Karen spoke to TMZ revealing that her father had spent the past year in hospice care and that ‘it was his time.’ 

His film credits include Field of Dreams, Fatal Attraction, Men in Black and House of Games.  

The veteran character actor was one of the oldest working actors in the business and a longtime stalwart of the Chicago theater scene

During an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times in 2019, when he was 95 and appearing in Hamlet, Nussbaum reflected on his many decades in acting.

‘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,’ he said. 

‘It’s the end of an era, the end of the Chicago school of acting,’ B.J. Jones, the artistic director of Northlight Theatre, and frequent collaborator with Nussbaum told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Jones went to visit his old friend on Tuesday where he delivered a script for the a new play.

‘He said he was bored. Hilarious.’ Jones said. ‘But he was ready to go.’

In 2019, Nussbaum was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the League of Chicago Theaters.

At the time, he was declared the oldest working member of Actor’s Equity. 

‘I get more fun out of this than I would out of anything else I love, I would hate to have to give it up,’ Nussbaum said of the lifetime achievement honor during an interview with Chicago’s ABC-7. 

 His daughter Karen spoke to TMZ revealing that her father had spent the past year in hospice care and that ‘it was his time’

His film credits include Field of Dreams, Fatal Attraction, Men in Black and House of Games

During an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times in 2019 , when he was 95 and appearing in Hamlet, Nussbaum reflected on his many decades in acting. ‘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,’ he said

The little alien hiding inside the fake skull of Nussbaum’s character Gentle Rosenberg in Men in Black

Nussbaum was born on December 29, 1923 in Chicago and made his acting debut in the Second City in 1950.

‘I think that being an actor in Chicago, over a number of years, is the most satisfying life I could imagine,’ Nussbaum told the Sun-Times in the 2019 interview. 

‘I found New York and LA to be …’ he said, pausing before continuing, ‘antithetic to art. The desire for fame, the desire for glory, for money, is overwhelming in both cities. 

‘Although I had some success in both cities, I decided my life was more balanced here. I enjoy getting on the bus to go downtown and have someone come up and say “I loved you in such-and-such.”