Felicity Kendal’s theatre director partner Michael Rudman dies aged 84 two years after he survived battle with Covid

• Tributes have been paid to the American theatre director Michael Rudman, 84
• His death comes two years after he fought for his life in hospital with Covid-19 

Felicity Kendal’s partner Michael Rudman has died, aged 84, two years after he survived a battle with Covid. 

The theatre director, who won a prestigious Tony award for one of his theatre productions on Broadway, died on Thursday. 

The eldest son of a Texan oil millionaire, he had previously fought for his life after contracting Covid in 2021. 

He was treated for two weeks on an intensive care ventilator, in what his partner Miss Kendal described as a ‘scary time’. 

Speaking of the ordeal, the Good Life star, 76, said: ‘I think I can speak for a lot of people about the fear being huge, and the frustration being a real hardship.

Theatre director Michael Rudman, who won a prestigious Tony award for one of his theatre productions on Broadway, died on Thursday, his family announced. He is pictured with his partner, Felicity Kendal 

Felicity Kendal, 74, with her partner Michael Rudman, 82, and his daughter Amanda 

‘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.’

Mr Rudman met Miss Kendal in 1974 while he was married to Veronica Bennett. The couple later married in 1983 after Miss Kendal divorced her first husband of 11 years, actor Drewe Henley. 

Miss Kendal was married to Drewe Henley from 1968 to 1979 and wed US theatre director Michael Rudman (pictured) in 1983. They divorced in 1991 when the actress left him to begin a relationship with Sir Tom Stoppard, who also left his wife Miriam

The American theatre director described the secretive romance in his book, ‘I Joke Too Much’.

Recounting the first time he saw Miss Kendal, 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.’  

The couple were married for seven years but divorced in 1991 when the Miss Kendal sensationally left him to begin a relationship with playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, who also left his wife Miriam.

Husband 1: She said infidelity ‘equals unhappiness’ and ‘brought me my first divorce’ as her first husband, actor Drewe Henley (pictured in 1967) ‘had affairs’

Lover:  Miss Kendal who has been married and divorced twice and had a highly-publicised romance with playwright Sir Tom Stoppard (right in 1993), insisted that she’s never had ‘affairs’ as ‘lying is never a good idea’

Despite their divorce, Miss Kendal and Mr Rudman rekindled their relationship in 1998 and have been together since, despite not remarrying. They have one son together called Jacob.

Speaking of her love life in 2019, Miss Kendal said: ‘I didn’t ever have affairs. I just went from one person to another, maybe overlapping a little bit.

‘I wouldn’t recommend infidelity to anybody, ever, it’s basically lying – and lying is never a good idea. But we all lie and most of us, at some point … are unfaithful to a partner.’

Mr Rudman said his working life was a ‘nightmare’ and that ‘with good cause, Felicity left’ him 

The split came after Mr Rudman took on a role of director of Chichester Festival Theatre in Sussex in 1990.

‘Through my own arrogance and optimism I thought running this relatively obscure provincial theatre after Hampstead Theatre and working at the National would be a piece of cake. It was more like trying to push treacle up a flight of stairs,’ he wrote in his book.

‘Juggling shortfall in the theatre’s income, daily hassle from the board, the stress of directing three of the ten plays and producing all of them, not to mention constant parties, I had enough on my plate.

‘My working life was a nightmare. With good cause, Felicity left me. Within a year I was fired. A few years later I left another job, running the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. I never used to believe it when someone resigned to “spend more time with their family”, but I was determined to do just that and I’m glad I did.’

A graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, Mr Rudman rose to great acclaim as a theatre director. 

He landed his first job as a stagehand with the radical New York collective Living Theatre, on their first European tour. 

But he was best known for  directing three productions of Arthur Miller’s greatest play, Death of a Salesman at he Nottingham Playhouse, where he was an assistant in the late 60s; at the National in 1979; and on Broadway in 1984 with Dustin Hoffman as Willy and newcomer John Malkovich as Biff, 

Mr Rudman directed Arthur Miller’s play Death Of A Salesman – which led to him bagging a prestigious Tony award. Pictured are Dustin Hoffman from the play (left) and and Arthur Miller, right

The last show earned the production a Tony award-winning ‘best revival’ category.  

News of his death has rocked the UK theatre scene, with tributes pouring out online in memory of the acclaimed director. 

Chichester Festival Theatre paid tribute to Mr Rudman, saying: ‘We’re saddened to learn of the death of Michael Rudman (1939-2023); he was artistic director of CFT in 1990 and directed many productions then and later, including Merry Wives, Rumours, Tallulah! & The Admirable Crichton. RIP.’ 

While London-based talent firm, The Soho Agency, tweeted: ‘We are deeply saddened at the passing of our client, brilliant theatre director & writer Michael Rudman. He will be greatly missed but his contribution to the theatre industry will not be forgotten. RIP Michael.’

Born on February 14, 1939 in Tyler, Texas, Mr Rudman was the elder son of MB ‘the Duke’ Rudman and his wife, Josephine, a schoolteacher.

He was educated at St Mark’s school in Dallas before going on to Oberlin and Oxford (1961-64), where he was elected president of the dramatic society. 

Upon graduating he went to Nottingham, where he directed John Neville, Judi Dench and Edward Woodward in Measure for Measure, and Gillian Martell and the American film star Robert Ryan in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

Later he succeeded Max Stafford-Clark in charge of the Traverse in Edinburgh.

Mr Rudman is survived by Miss Kendal, their son Jacob; two daughters, Amanda and Katherine, from his first marriage; and by his grandchildren, Catherine, Archie, Dylan, Lucas and Rosa. A younger brother, Wolfe, predeceased him. 

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