Felicity Kendal’s partner Michael Rudman has died aged 84.
The theatre director died on Thursday (March 30) two years after he spent a fortnight in intensive care on a ventilator with Covid.
Rudman’s death was confirmed in a statement posted on Twitter by The Soho Agency talent firm which represented him. It read: ‘We are deeply saddened at the passing of our client, brilliant theatre director and writer Michael Rudman.
‘He will be greatly missed but his contribution to the theatre industry will not be forgotten. RIP Michael.’
Rudman married twice and divorced twice. His first marriage was to Veronica Bennett from 1963 to 1981.
He later wed Felicity in 1983, with the couple welcoming a son, Jacob, before divorcing in 1991 and reuniting seven years later.
Rudman met Felicity in 1974 while he was still married to his first wife and shared the first time he met her in his memoir, I Joke Too Much.
He wrote: ‘I can’t say I fell in love with her that day, but I certainly felt differently about her than I did about her co-stars Tom Courtenay and Michael Gambon.
‘I had been directing actors since the early Sixties at the National Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway, among other places.
‘Soon afterwards I offered Felicity a role in a play I was directing in the West End.
‘The production went well and when, some time later, we began dating we decided to keep our relationship a secret.
‘This was quite difficult: I was now directing her in a play at the National Theatre, we both had children and my daughters, Amanda and Katy, spent every weekend with me. Still, I swore the girls to secrecy.’
In 2021, Good Life star Felicity spoke about Rudman’s ‘scary’ Covid ordeal.
At the time, she said: ‘I think I can speak for a lot of people about the fear being huge, and the frustration being a real hardship
‘That feeling that you don’t know what state your loved one is in, and knowing you still can’t go and see them – it’s not like anything you’ve experienced before. It was just such a scary time. Michael is in his eighties.’
