American theatre director whose career began as an expatriate at the Nottingham Playhouse in England in 1964, where he was an assistant director and, later, associate producer. He went on to become director of the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh from 1970 to 1973, after which he took up the post of artistic director at Hampstead Theatre until 1978. While he was at Hampstead, the theatre won the Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Achievement.
In 1978, he was invited to join the National Theatre by Sir Peter Hall and was director of the Lyttelton Theatre from 1979 to 1982. He continued there as an associate director until 1988, after which he went to the Chichester Festival Theatre as the director for the 1990 season. From 1992 to 1994, he was artistic director of the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
In America, he directed three plays on Broadway. His production of Death of a Salesman at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York, won the Tony Award for best revival. He won the Drama Desk Award for The Changing Room at the Morosco Theatre and directed Hamlet in Central Park and at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in Lincoln Center, New York.
With his first wife Veronica Bennett he had two daughters, Amanda and Katherine Rudman. He was later married to British actress Felicity Kendal from 1983 to 1994. They had one son together, Jacob Rudman. They parted in 1991, divorced in 1994, but from 1998 the partnership between them resumed.
Michael Rudman died on 30 March 2023 at the age of 84.
Link to Wikipedia biography