A former friend of late star Rodney Dangerfield has been banned from distributing video footage showing the final years of the comic’s life.

Dangerfield’s widow Joan filed a lawsuit against producer David Permut last year after he allegedly showed a private video tape of the funnyman to two writers.

Permut was allegedly planning to edit the 200 hours of footage into a documentary called Respect.

But now he has been permanently barred from doing so by a Los Angeles judge, who ordered Permut not to distribute the footage earlier this week.

Lawyers for both parties have declined to comment, claiming the other terms of the settlement are confidential.

Dangerfield died in 2004 at the age of 82.