Tom Hulce: Five Questions Answered
Male Actors
Tom Hulce has made a name for himself as an actor, singer and theater producer in a career that has surpassed forty years and counting. When you Google Tom’s name, you will be greeted with a series of questions, here are five of the questions we deem most relevant in understanding the man and actor Hulce. We go
How old is Tom Hulce?
Tom Hulce is 65 years as of August 2019. He was born in December 1953. He was born in the industrial city of Detroit, Michigan. His mother was a singer with relative fame. His father worked with Ford Motors. The singing influence of his mother was strong on him as a child that he grew up desiring to be a music star. Teenage played a trick on him and his voice became stronger and less musical. He settled for acting.
Hulce left home at the age of 15 to pursue his dream.
Tom Hulce career: Who played Amadeus Mozart?
Tom Hulce played the role of Amadeus Mozart in the American movie from 1984 that profiled the lifetime and career of the music legend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (plus his rivalry with Antonio Salieri) borrowing heavily from fiction to tell his story. The movie made a modest 52 million dollars which is nearly thrice its budget of 18 million dollars.
But the critics loved the movie, reviewers praised it (when Rotten Tomatoes gives you 93% review, you are the bomb) and award givers ran riot nominating it for scores of award for which it won 40 (including 8 Oscars). Not done, they went ahead to declare the film one of the best movies of all time.
The film was directed by the Czech-American legend Miloš Forman. For a long time, the Northern Irish actor Kenneth Branagh was billed to play the role as it was meant for a European cast. In the end, Forman chose to go with an American cast and the role of Mozart went to Tom Hulce and the role of Antonio Salieri to F Murray Abraham for which he won an Oscar.
Amadeus was the finest moment of his career, but Hulce began acting in 1975. He featured in some obscured television film called “Forget-Me-Not-Lane”. Hulce hasn’t acted so many movies in a career that covered five decades. There are just over twenty of them. But they were quality performances that mostly got critical acclaim and got him over a dozen nominations and a few awards. His appearance as Larry Kroger in “Animal House” (1978) and as “Larry” in “Parenthood” (1989) have remained stuff for legends. Till date.
Tom Hulce has gone on to become a producer and had successfully produced films and stage performances for Broadway.
What is his sexual orientation?
Tom Hulce never got married.
There have been rumors online that he was married and his wife bore him a child. Tom has come out to strongly deny this calling it “false”. He affirms that he is openly gay. We do not know who his lover(s) is(are) or have been. He is gay, yes, he is clear about this, yes, but Hulce is not the type to go about flaunting his relationships. He keeps his personal dealings personal.
Can Tom Hulce play the Piano?
Because Mozart was a piano legend and HulceTom Hulce played a lot of the organ on set and it sounded real. Can Tom play the piano? Can Tom Hulce really play the piano? Was a body double used? Were the notes prerecorded or edited afterward to make it real? Not so. It was Tom Hulce playing. Was he that good? Hard work is the answer.
“I spent four weeks, four to five hours a day learning to play,” Tom said. “The first two days were scales and exercises. The next day was a concerto.” People who have played any instrument for years will doubt that a few weeks of practice will make anyone a master. This is true but Mr. Hulce wasn’t learning to be a master, he was playing to play like a master. He was learning to play like Mozart and he didn’t have to learn all the notes. Just the ones important to him on set.
Hulce claimed he didn’t know when the camera will be on his hand, so it is not a matter of Hulce playing whatever he pleases for the video editor to work on. He was playing the real thing.
There is no big reason to doubt his claims. For one, actors have a knack for just being able to learn a particular art, mannerism or act for a movie. We have seen actors who spoke Fluent Spanish on set even though they do not understand the language originally. To put this in a perspective, is it possible for me to learn to play chess and become a grandmaster by just playing for a few weeks? Of course, no. But can I learn to play chess like World Champion Magnus Carlsen in a couple of film scenes? Absolutely.
What is Hulce’s net worth?
Tom Hulce has made money in Hollywood and on the Broadway. He is worth fifteen million dollars. He came, he saw and he made his dough, proving that you do not need to make 100 films to make real money off the industry. Quality is usually rated higher than quantity. Hulce affirms this.
Fifteen million dollars is no joke.
Image source: pagesix.com
