 Rudy in 1998 | |
| Rudy Tanner | |
| Portrayed by | Vincent Angell |
| Episode | Revenge |
| Status | Deceased (1999) |
Rudy was the father of Archie and husband to Sandra Riley. While he appeared to be a friendly and charming person, the truth was that he was a manipulative, selfish, cold, and crude pedophile. It is possible he only married Sandra just to have a victim in Archie. Sandra didn't appear to see, for a bit, that Rudy was molesting their son and was most likely taking child pornography and would put the photos on a website. Due to his wife's busy schedule, he had full access to Archie and eventually groomed his son as access for his sexual abuse. The brainwashing had sunk so deep into Archie that he actually saw his father's abuse as affection. In 1998, he bought Kyle Bream off his uncle Eddie for drug money.
Kyle soon became his victim and began molesting Kyle and made him change his name to "Parker" and made him to take child pornography photos. Like Archie, he began to brainwash Kyle and convinced him that his parents had left him and spoiled the child like his own to further groom him. Due to his son outgrowing his preference, Archie was completely pushed away and believed his father didn't like him anymore because he was giving Kyle so much "time". While Kyle wasn't sure that what Rudy was doing was wrong, he was clearly uncomfortable in his presence and wanted to return home.
Its not really known if Rudy even loved his son or anyone, as he completely shunned his son, beyond giving a few small compliments. When a negelected Archie asks his father why didn't he like him anymore(not really realizing his father was abusing him), Rudy didn't give his son an answer. He's very quick to find people's weaknesses and exploit them to his own advantage. As he once convinced Kyle his parents left him because he was "too expensive".
Eventually Eddie returned for his nephew and tried to get him back. Rudy, talked him out of it and gave him more drug money. Whether out of fear he'd return or authorities finding him, he revealed to Eddie that he was planning to runaway with Kyle. Either Europe or Canada, to be "alone" with him, and left no indication that Archie would go with him. Not wanting to lose his dad, he told Kyle the truth about his parents and that they were looking for him.
Archie took Kyle to the harbor and convinced him to swim it to get home. Kyle drowned trying to get home. But Rudy would not escape his crimes as he probably wanted. Whether out of guilt for Archie or believing that Rudy killed Kyle, his wife went to Tina Bream and told her about Kyle. She also informed the Breams about Rudy and how he sexually abused and exploited their son on a pornography website. Ken bought a password to see if it was true and much to his horror saw the photos of his son.
Disgusted and enraged, he confronted Rudy in his backyard. He denies killing Kyle but admits he took pictures of Kyle. But says "it was only that", to Ken it was more than enough for his wrath. Rudy, smugly, says a disgusting comment about how he sexually abused Kyle, to which Ken shot him before he could finish. Ken shows no regret for killing Rudy, he's just surprised that he got away it for so many years.
Notes[]
His one trait was calling his current favorite his "star". As he called Sandra that up til Archie's birth, then Archie, until he outgrew him and then he chose Kyle as his new star.