Michael Rudman Wiki – Michael Rudman Biography
Michael Rudman the theater director passed away at the age of 84. Born February 14, 1939, in Tyler, Texas, Mr. Rudman was the eldest son of MB ‘the Duke’ Rudman and his wife, Josephine, a schoolteacher.
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 “terrifying time”. Speaking of the ordeal, the 76-year-old Good Life star said: “I think I can speak for a lot of people about the fear that is huge and the frustration that is a real hardship.” That feeling of not knowing what state your loved one is in, and knowing that you can’t go see them yet, is like nothing you’ve ever experienced before. It was such a scary moment. Michael is over eighty years old.
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Michael Rudman Age
Michael Rudman was 84 years old.
In 1974
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. The American theater director described the secret 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 for her than I did for her co-stars Tom Courtenay and Michael Gambon. He had been directing actors since the early 1960s, at the National Theatre, in the West End, and on Broadway, among other places. Shortly thereafter I offered Felicity a part in a play he was directing in the West End. Production went well and when we started dating sometime later, we decided to keep our relationship a secret. This was quite difficult – now I was 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 made the girls swear to secrecy.
Despite their divorce, Miss Kendal and Mr. Rudman got back together in 1998 and have been together ever since, despite never remarrying. They have a son together named Jacob. Speaking about her love life in 2019, Miss Kendal said: “I never had affairs.” I just went from person to person, maybe overlapping a bit. “I wouldn’t recommend cheating on anyone, ever, it’s lying, and lying is never a good idea. But we all lie and most of us, at some point… is unfaithful to a partner.’ The split came after Rudman took over the role of director of the Chichester Festival Theater in Sussex in 1990. Out of my hubris and optimism, I thought running this relatively obscure provincial theater after the Hampstead Theater and working at the National would be a piece of cake. It was more like trying to push molasses down a flight of stairs,” he wrote in his book.
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“Juggling the theater’s revenue shortfall, daily board issues, the stress of directing three of the ten plays and producing them all, not to mention the constant parties, I had enough on my plate. My working life was a nightmare. With good reason, Felicity dumped me. After a year they fired me. A few years later I left another job, running the Crucible Theater in Sheffield. I never used to believe when someone gave up “spending 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 gained wide recognition as a theater director. He landed his first job as a stagehand with New York’s radical collective Living Theatre, on their first European tour. But he was best known for directing three productions of Arthur Miller’s best play, Death of a Salesman at the Nottingham Playhouse, where he was an assistant in the late ’60s; in the National in 1979; and on Broadway in 1984 with Dustin Hoffman as Willy and newcomer John Malkovich as Biff.
Michael Rudman Death, Tributes
The latter show earned the production a Tony Award-winning ‘best revival’ category. News of his death has rocked the UK theater scene, with online tributes to the acclaimed director.
Chichester Festival Theater paid tribute to Mr. Rudman, saying: “We are 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. BREAK.’ While London-based talent firm The Soho Agency tweeted: “We are deeply saddened by the passing of our client, the brilliant theater director and writer Michael Rudman. He will be greatly missed, but his contribution to the theater industry will not be forgotten. RIP Michael.
He was educated at St Mark’s School in Dallas before going to Oberlin and Oxford (1961-64), where he was elected president of the dramatic society. On graduation, he went to Nottingham, where he directed John Neville, Judi Dench, and Edward Woodward in Measure for Measure, and Gillian Martell and American film star Robert Ryan in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night. He later succeeded Max Stafford-Clark in charge of the Traverse at Edinburgh. Mr. Rudman is survived by Miss Kendal, his daughter Jacob; two daughters, Amanda and Katherine, from his first marriage; and his grandchildren, Catherine, Archie, Dylan, Lucas, and Rosa. A younger brother, Wolfe, predeceased him.
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