Peter Medak, a British-Hungarian film director, has passed away at 88. He was best known for The Changeling, a 1980 ghost story that became widely recognized as a masterpiece following endorsements from prominent filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Guillermo del Toro. The film starred George C. Scott as a grieving composer encountering supernatural phenomena in a Seattle mansion. Despite its subtle approach to horror, the work has remained influential in cinema.
Medak’s career spanned multiple genres and decades. He gained early recognition for The Ruling Class in 1972, a satirical film featuring Peter O’Toole as an eccentric aristocrat. He later directed two crime dramas exploring British postwar criminality. The Krays in 1990 depicted the notorious twin brothers with performances from Gary and Martin Kemp, supported by Billie Whitelaw and other accomplished actors. Let Him Have It in 1991 dramatized the case of Derek Bentley, who was executed in 1953 for a crime he did not commit, though his conviction was later overturned in 1998.
Medak’s background shaped his artistic sensibilities. Born in Budapest to a seamstress mother and textile businessman father, he experienced the horrors of World War II as a child. In June 1944, his family narrowly escaped Arrow Cross persecution of Jewish citizens, eventually hiding for eight months under false identities. These formative experiences informed his later interest in dark and dramatic subject matter.
Medak’s path to filmmaking began when his London-based aunt, soprano Lotte Medák, gave him a hand-cranked camera. During the 1956 Hungarian revolution, he fled to the United Kingdom at age 18, securing work through his aunt’s connections as a trainee with Associated British-Pathé. He progressed to assistant and second unit director roles on productions including Hammer’s The Phantom of the Opera and the thriller Funeral in Berlin.
His directorial work encompassed diverse projects. Early films included Negatives in 1968 and adaptations of theatrical works. He ventured into comedy with entries like The Odd Job and Zorro – The Gay Blade. Medak later reflected on Ghost in the Noonday Sun from 1974 as catastrophic, having battled production challenges including complications with star Peter Sellers. In 2018, he created a documentary revisiting that troubled production with unexpected warmth toward the performer.
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