One of York’s most-loved characters, the street entertainer and artist Purpleman, has died suddenly.
Real-name Michael Todd, he was found collapsed on a street in his home in Selby last Thursday, YorkMix understands. He was taken to hospital but was dead on arrival.
His death is thought to be of natural causes, possibly a heart attack. A post mortem is taking place at York Hospital, his ex-wife Mae has told friends.
He is survived by a son and a daughter.
It brings to an end an extraordinary, sometimes troubled, sometimes joyous and always colourful life.
Michael previously worked in finance before giving that up to become a performer.
Terry Brett, who runs the Pyramid Gallery on Stonegate, was friends with Purpleman – later Michael – for many years.
He began performing near Terry’s gallery as Mr Windy in the early 2000s. Painted white, he would battle against imaginary gale force gusts.
Then Purpleman appeared – having gained this colour because “mother is red and father is blue”.
He became an unofficial ambassador for York, meeting and greeting thousands of residents and visitors on his stationary purple bike on Stonegate and then Shambles.
He claimed to be the most photographed cyclist in the world.
But behind the purple body paint, there was a complex and often difficult story.
Terry told YorkMix: “He was unusual. He had many worries, had many difficulties in his life.
“His mother was killed in some farm machinery when he was maybe a teenager. He’d told me about a daughter he had who born to, I think, an Iraqi lady.”
He shared with friends the fact that he had travelled to Iraq during the Gulf War to try to find his daughter.
But Michael was arrested at gunpoint by the American Army, and taken to a hidden cell with a hood over his head.
It left him with post traumatic stress syndrome. But he still managed to make friends with many of his captors, and stayed in touch with them long after his release.
His always said his street performing served as form of healing meditation.
“He had many issues from his past, which he coped with by meditation, and he visited the Buddhist Centre quite often,” said Terry.
“He was well read in things spiritual and motivational, and that’s how he got through his life. So he came across as either a bit a bit silly as he was on the bike or or very sincere – a real mix.”
Michael used his Purpleman character to raise countless thousands of pounds and gather toys in charity appeals that took him everywhere from Grenfell Tower to Syria.
Terry went with him when he handed out toys to Syrian children.
“These children had nothing. We painted a bike in purple, and he rode it with toys in a big basket on the front to delight of all these kids.
“We handed them out, and we had a lovely occasion.”
He finished his life as Purpleman with an epic slow-motion walk along Shambles in 2021.
Michael had big plans for the next stage of his life. A prolific artist, he’d spent the last few years creating many and varied original artworks which he was selling to fund the next project.
Terry was due to hold an exhibition of Purpleman art at the Pyramid Gallery next year as part of the process.
He wanted to create a Purple Centre, with the aim of sharing art and boosting mental wellbeing.
Terry said: “It really would have been visually a very exciting thing, with illuminations.
“He had a scheme where people would buy a jigsaw puzzle with big handmade pieces, and when they all came together, there would be a message in it. People would walk into the building and see a illusion of a jigsaw above their heads.”
He added: “It was a big scheme. It involved many different facets of of art in many forms. There would have eventually been a big building that was dedicated to it, and he was attracting interest from investors who had a lot of wealth behind them.”
He was due to fly to Istanbul to meet with one of the potential investors the day after he died.
In 2016 Michael teamed up with director Rob Martin to create the film The Chronicles Of Purpleman.
Rob told YorkMix: “He had always had this thing about being positive, you could do anything. He had this larger than life belief system that everything was possible. He would never try and look at things negatively.
“I think he just loved when I made the film. He loved the way that people randomly would see this purple character, and the way they would smile.”
There was talk of another large budget film being made of his life as part of his next project.
Terry said Michael’s life was “extraordinary and charismatic”. And it’s hard to believe he’s gone.
“It’s shocking. It’s a terrible situation. I really wanted to see the end of this story, and now it can’t be done.”
