“Men in Black” and “Field of Dreams” Actor Mike Nussbaum Dead at 99

Mike Nussbaum, a veteran stage and screen actor from Chicago whose credits include Men in Black, Field of Dreams and Fatal Attraction, died at the age of 99 Saturday, just days before he would’ve turned 100.

His daughter Karen Nussbaum confirmed the news to various outlets including The Associated Press and the Chicago Sun-Times, saying the cause of death was “old age.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nussbaum performed on Chicago stages for 50 years and was given a lifetime achievement award from the League of Chicago Theaters in 2019. That same year, he was performing in Hamlet at the age of 95.

“He was a great dad and a good man,” Karen said of the actor via the Chicago Tribune. “He loved acting and he also loved turning the spotlight on other people. He hated fascism from boyhood and he raised three children who cared about justice.”

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Hailing from Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood, Nussbaum didn’t start acting on a full-time level until he was in his 40s; he had previously worked as an exterminator, per the AP.

He became associated with fellow Chicagoan David Mamet, having performed in the playwright’s works such as Glengarry Glen Ross, American Buffalo and Relativity, according to the Sun-Times. (He won a Drama Desk award for his work in Glengarry Glen Ross in 1984, per the AP) Other theatrical productions Nusbaum was involved in throughout his career included Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.

In addition to the theater, Nussbaum amassed onscreen credits such as Men in Black, where he played the alien jeweler Gentle Rosenburg; a book publisher in Fatal Attraction; and a school principal in Field of Dreams, per The Hollywood Reporter.  And according to his IMDb profile, he also appeared on Fraiser, The X-Files and L.A. Law.

“He was the godfather of the working Chicago actor,” Barbara Gaines, a former artistic director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater, told the Tribune. “He had the Chicago rigor, the Chicago intelligence and the Chicago passion, but his default emotion was always humor.”

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Nussbaum once spoke about what accounted for his long career in acting in an interview with the Sun-Times in 2019: “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.”

Nussbaum was paid tribute by several actors on social media following the news of his death.

“RIP Mike Nussbaum - a truly great actor of stage and screen - with stage his greatest love - I’ve seen him on stage all my life -always pitch perfect in anything he ever did - and a true gentleman - Chicago Icon,” writer John Cusack on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.

“#Chicago has lost a fine man and a marvelous actor. Goodnight, Mike Nussbaum—you were one of a kind,” The Gilded Age star Carrie Coon shared.

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Laverne & Shirley and This Is Spinal Tap actor Michael McKean wrote: “Never not good. RIP Mike Nussbaum.”

Richard Roeper, movie and TV critic for the Sun-Times, also posted on X about the late actor: "Chicago theater legend and film/TV character actor Mike Nussbaum has died just six days short of his 100th birthday . . . Rest well good sir."

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