Michael Rudman, Felicity Kendal’s companion, died at the age of 84.
On Thursday (March 30), the theatrical director perished, two years after spending a fortnight in intensive care on a ventilator with Covid.
Rudman’s death was verified by The Soho Agency talent agency, which handled him, in a statement shared on Twitter. ‘We are profoundly grieved by the death of our customer, talented theatrical director and playwright Michael Rudman,’ it said.
‘He will be greatly missed but his contribution to the theatre industry will not be forgotten. RIP Michael.’
Rudman was married and separated twice. From 1963 to 1981, he was married to Veronica Bennett.
Later, in 1983, he married Felicity, and the pair had a son, Jacob, before separating in 1991 and reuniting seven years later.
Rudman met Felicity in 1974 while still married to his first wife, and he wrote about it in his book, 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.’
Felicity of the Good Life spoke about Rudman’s’scary’ Covid experience in 2021.
‘I believe I can speak for a lot of people when I say the dread is enormous, and the frustration is a genuine hardship,’ she said at the time.
‘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.’
