Tom Hulce

Tom Edward Hulce is an American actor who gained great fame for his portrayal of Mozart in the film Amadeus.

He was born in Detroit, Michigan, as Thomas Edward Hulce. His family later moved to another city in the same state, where Hulce grew up with his two sisters and brother. He wanted to be a singer, but when his voice changed he had to give up that idea. He then decided to become an actor and began preparing for it early. After finishing school, he gave himself 10 years to achieve this goal.

He began working as an usher and at the box office of a small theater, where he came into contact with the world of acting. He saw Christopher Walken perform in a play at a theater in Canada, and it impressed him and reaffirmed his plan to become an actor. Although his parents were not thrilled about their son becoming an actor, Hulce left home to get the training he needed. He studied at an arts school in North Carolina and spent a summer in England before settling in New York to try his luck in Broadway theaters.

Less than a month after his arrival, Hulce was hired on Broadway as the understudy for the lead actor in the play Equus. After almost a year, he felt the time had come to play the role his own way, rather than the way the lead actor did. Audiences understood that his performance was different and found it a reasonable success.

While Equus was on stage, Hulce turned down a very tempting offer to appear on television. At the time, he believed his future lay in theater, where he would find fulfillment and success. After Equus, he performed in several plays, one of which earned him a Tony Award nomination, and he even directed a musical.

Hulce finally appeared in film in 1977, in a movie that depicted the day James Dean died. In his next film, he acted alongside Donald Sutherland in Animal House, and in 1984 he got his big break when he was offered the role of Mozart in Miloš Forman's Amadeus. The film was an extraordinary success and won several Oscars. It even boosted sales of Mozart music recordings by 30%. Hulce was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, as was his co-star F. Murray Abraham, who played Antonio Salieri and ultimately won the statuette.

In the following years, his film career took an unusual path, as Hulce took on roles playing complex characters. To prepare, he spent time in places where he could observe people like the ones he had to portray, studying how they behaved. At the same time, he made several television films and kept working in theater. Although most of his films never reached a wide audience, his acting skills were recognized more than once. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor and for three Golden Globes.