The actor who played EastEnders’ lovable villain Patrick Trueman for many years has revealed that a divorce left him destitute and homeless later in life, despite his daily work in Britain’s biggest soap.
Soap legend Rudolph Walker was penniless and homeless for two years but hid his suffering from his EastEnders co-stars and children.
The 84-year-old, who plays the lovable villain Patrick Trueman in Albert Square, admitted things got so bad he often broke down in tears on the way to Elstree Studios to deal with the “utter despair” of his “double life”.
Even while working on one of the BBC’s biggest shows, Rudolph was living out of a suitcase and relying on favours from friends to keep a roof over his head. His co-stars were completely unaware of the depth of his problems. This began in the mid-2010s after an extremely stressful divorce from his second wife, Doune Alexander MBE, whom he married in 1998.
He was over 70 years old and had worked for more than 40 years, but legal costs had left him penniless. All he had was a car. The situation became so desperate that he even wanted to film late into the night so that the BBC, who knew nothing about his problems, would offer him accommodation in a hotel close to the set.
He says: It was very difficult. We simply couldn’t afford it. When I was in my 70s, I literally had to start from scratch and I had no place to be. It was a time of pain and loneliness.”
Despite this, he was determined to hide what he was going through, and played Patrick as carefree as ever. “There were days when I was on my way to the studio and I stopped by the side of the road and cried,” he reveals. “I pulled myself together and arrived at the studio. The environment was like a tonic and I was ready to get started straight away. I guess it was a kind of double life.”
Only Diane Parish, who plays Denise Fox, suspected that something was wrong. She took Rudolph aside during breaks and asked him if everything was OK. “Diane knew something was going on, but I never made it clear how serious it was,” he says. “I am who I am.”
Ahead of the publication of his autobiography, Walking with Dignity, Rudolph finally speaks out about his difficult times. He became “totally desperate” after finding accommodation in a cheap hotel that resembled a guesthouse. “There was a sink, a little bed and a TV in the corner and a shared shower and toilet in the hallway,” he says. “I sat on my bed and cried.
But the star, who turns 85 later this month, isn’t letting that get him down. He believes the strength he gained during those early days in Trinidad helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. “Like Gloria Gaynor says in the song, there’s something in me since I was a child that’s been saying, ‘I’m gonna survive,'” he says. “No matter how hard things get, no matter how little I have, I’m gonna survive. I come from an environment where I had almost nothing, but even when I had absolutely nothing, even when I was at the height of my fame, I had this resilience and the will to survive and try to be happy.”
Rudolph never lost his sense of style
Which is why he never fully explained to his adult children Darren, 52, and Shena, 48, how bad things were at the time.
“I know that today people go to psychiatrists and get help, and maybe I should have done that too, but I got it from the people around me,” he explains, of the decisions he’s made over the years. “I am who I am because of them.” Am I happy with the way things are now? Yes, I’m very happy, [so] maybe someone, that old lady over there, will look after me.”
Rudolph’s first wife, Lorna Ross, whom he married in 1968 but separated from in the early ’90s, arranged for him to stay with a friend. “God bless them,” he says. “We’re still very good friends. It didn’t free me from what I was going through, but it did ease a lot of it.”
Today, more than a decade later, he’s back on his feet and back in his Reading home, surrounded by “great” neighbors. “Never give up,” says the star, who founded the Rudolph Walker Foundation in 2009 to empower young people through the arts. “One thing I always keep in mind is that where there’s life, there’s hope.”
Rudolph was born and raised in Trinidad. His relationship with his mother was difficult. At times, she would beat him and he would pretend to be dead to get her to stop. There was also an incident where a neighbor touched him inappropriately, but he now ignores it. Then, when he boarded the Orange-Nassau to start a new life in Britain in 1960, he found all but one of the black passengers confined to the lower deck.
When he arrived in London, he looked for accommodation and saw a sign that read “No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs”. A friend told him, “If there was a war between blacks and whites, I’d fight for the whites.”
Rudolph rose to fame as Bill Reynolds in the sitcom Love Thy Neighbor, which is now criticized for its portrayal of race relations in Britain in the 1970s. He recalled how black actors had few opportunities to work as actors, adding, “There was certainly prejudice, even from people who wanted to help.”
Rudolph, who joined EastEnders in 2001, says there is still a lot of work to be done. He says: “Yes, there are more Afro-Caribbean actors and anchors on TV, but the population is much larger now so to what extent can you measure that?
“Change is still a long way away, not just in my industry but in decision-making, but Rudolph has no intention of stopping.” “I’m feeling good,” he laughs. “I still try to get on the tennis court as much as I can. Last week I played a charity cricket match with Chris Tarrant. I think they were surprised I got three overs. I was surprised myself, actually! For now, I want to continue my work with the Rudolph Walker Foundation and take it to Africa and the Caribbean.”
Rudolph, who also starred in Ben Elton’s The Thin Blue Line and the 1980s courtroom drama Black Silk, co-starred and starred alongside Hollywood icons such as Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and John Goodman, was appointed a Commander of the British Empire in 2020 for his services to drama and charity.
In 2016, he married his third wife, former school principal Evangeline Vincent. She died this year, but Rudolph hasn’t spoken about it. “When I set sail from Trinidad I never could have imagined I’d be where I am today,” he says. “I have done what I know and believe, to the best of my knowledge and belief, that brings me joy. I want to make my children and grandchildren proud.”
Rudolph recounts his story in Walking With Dignity, published by Kronos Publishing on 26 September and available from all good bookshops for £12.99.
