thumb|right|250px|[[Rich Matteson, Red Rodney, and Ira Sullivan at the Village Jazz Lounge in Walt Disney World; photo: Laura Kolb]]
Robert Roland Chudnick (September 27, 1927 – May 27, 1994), He was Jewish.
He accepted an invitation from Charlie Parker to join his quintet and was a member of the band from 1949 to 1951. During this time he recorded extensively.
During the 1950s, he worked as a bandleader in Philadelphia and recorded with Ira Sullivan. He became addicted to heroin and started a pattern of dropping in and out of jazz.
During 1969, Rodney played in Las Vegas with fellow Woody Herman colleague, trombonist Bill Harris, as part of the Flamingo casino house band led by Russ Black. Similar work continued through 1972.
In the early 1970s he was bankrupted by medical costs following a stroke. He returned to jazz. In 1975 he was incarcerated in Lexington, Kentucky for drug offenses. While jailed he gave music lessons to guitarist Wayne Kramer of the MC5.
left|thumb|Red Rodney at [[Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay CA 1982]]
He reunited with Ira Sullivan and performed with Dizzy Gillespie.