Chicago actor Mike Nussbaum dies at 99, the oldest working actor in the US

Actor Mike Nussbaum at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, posing in the lobby with a bust of William Shakespeare, August 2005. Nussbaum died Saturday, Dec 23, 2023. He was 99. Photo: TNS

Mike Nussbaum, acknowledged by the Actor’s Equity union as the oldest professional actor in the United States and a dynamic and yet steadying influence in Chicago theatre for decades, died Saturday (Dec 23) at home at the age of 99.

He was days short of his 100th birthday. And until his final week, he had been participating in dramatic readings and other projects with his friend B.J. Jones, the artistic director of Northlight Theatre in Skokie.