Mike Nussbaum, veteran Chicago stage actor, dies at 99

Mike Nussbaum, a stalwart of the Chicago theater community, has died at the age of 99.

His daughter Karen Nussbaum confirmed the veteran Chicago actor died Saturday morning of “old age” at his home, one week shy of his 100th birthday. She was by his side when he passed.

Nussbaum was a fixture on Chicago’s stages for more than half a century, from the Goodman Theater, where his credits included David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” and “Glengarry Glen Ross,” as well as “Smokefall” among others, to Northlight Theatre where, in addition to starring in Tom Stoppard’s “Jumpers” — the company’s very first production in 1975 (a company he helped found and serving as its first artistic director) — his work included an unforgettable performance as Albert Einstein in Mamet’s “Relativity,” as well as “Visiting Mr. Green” and “Curve of Departure.”

“It’s the end of an era, the end of the Chicago school of acting,” said B.J. Jones, the artistic director of Northlight Theatre, and frequent collaborator with Nussbaum. Jones most recently visited his friend of 50 years on Tuesday, where he presented Nussbaum with a script for consideration for Catherine Trieschmann’s “One House Over.”

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