Rudi Patterson

One of Freddie's closest friends, the artist, actor and model Rudi Patterson was born in 1933 in a sugar plantation town in St Thomas, south-east Jamaica, in the lea of the Blue Mountains. The tropical environment of his childhood was to feature as a major influence throughout his life. After studying in Kingston, Rudi moved to London as one of the pioneer Windrush generation.

Armed with talent, charm and good looks he became a self-propelled star of the Swinging Sixties, establishing a career in modelling, and acting on stage and screen. His acting and modelling credits include the Rolling Stones’ documentary ‘Sympathy for the Devil’, ‘Z Cars’, ‘The Professionals’ and a British Airways commercial.

Rudi taught himself to paint and began exhibiting artworks from the late Sixties. A few years later he broke his neck in a water-skiing accident and whilst convalescing devoted more time to painting. From a tower block in North Kensington he painted the gardens and landscapes of Jamaica from memory, creating a spell-binding world of mysterious paths, lost mansions, and native flowers and fruits.