Rudi Patterson collection

This collection covers Patterson's early career, artistic career, and personal material.

Rudi Patterson (29 September 1933 - 24 July 2013) was a Jamaican born actor, model, painter and potter. Known for his work as an actor in theatre, film and television, he became a self-taught painter later in life from 1974. He was known for his colourful, "intuitive" depictions of life in the Caribbean. His work was collected by Freddie Mercury, Twiggy and Stevie Wonder.

Patterson appeared in early episodes of the television series Z-Cars, The Professionals, in the film Two A Penny opposite Cliff Richard and appeared in The Rolling Stones 1968 documentary film Sympathy For The Devil.

This collection is partially open for research. Readers are strongly urged to contact Black Cultural Archives in advance of their visit. Some of the material may be stored off-site and advance notice of at least a week is needed in order to retrieve this material.

The reading room is open for access to archive materials Wednesdays-Fridays, 10am-4pm. The reading room is also open late every second Thursday of the month, 1pm-7pm.

Please email the archivist to book an appointment archives@bcaheritage.org.uk

Collection donated in September 2013 to Black Cultural Archives.

The donor passed away in July 2013 and so an initial scoping report was undertaken at his flat. We received in the material in September 2013. There was no order but all items received were immediately relocated into acid free boxes. We kept all items in folders together as received. The material was listed during 2014 by an intern. Some of the artwork and other personal items were returned to the descendant. It was decided to order the material into three main series of chronological significance. This would cover Rudi Patterson's early modelling/acting career, his artistic career and any personal material. The series were then ordered into format types as much as possible.