Peter Medak, the award-winning director whose career spanned film and television, died on Tuesday, October 27, at the age of 88. His family confirmed the news, saying he died peacefully, although no cause of death has been revealed.
Medak helmed multiple episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street, Hart to Hart and instalments of Breaking Bad, The Wire, Space: 1999, Magnum P.I., Law & Order: SVU, St. Elsewhere, Chicago Hope, House and Cold Case.
Tributes from friends and fans
Malcolm McDowell paid a moving tribute to the star on Instagram. Sharing an image of the pair together, he wrote: "One of my oldest and dearest friends, Peter Medak, has left us. He cast me in FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE at the beginning of my career. He was a lovely director. The Krays, The Ruling Class, The Changeling, Romeo is Bleeding. We remained lifelong friends. I loved him very much. RIP."
Other tributes flooded in as news of his death became public. On Facebook, one user wrote: "R.I.P to the talented director Peter Medak. He made some superb movies, including The Krays, The Ruling Class, Let Him Have It, & Romeo is Bleeding. But for me, he also made cinema's scariest ghost movie, 1980's The Changeling."
A career across film and television
Peter began his career in 1968 with the erotic thriller Negatives, featuring Glenda Jackson in one of her first films. In 1972, he directed an adaptation of Peter Nichols' black comedy for the stage, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, which starred Alan Bates and Janet Suzman.
That same year he directed The Ruling Class, which saw lead actor Peter O'Toole garner an Oscar nomination for his work on the film. In 1980 he turned his hand to horror with The Changeling, starring George C. Scott as a grieving composer caught in a supernatural mystery.
Legacy of British cinema
Directing legends Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Amenábar have all been vocal in their praise of the movie, and Spielberg even screened the film for his crew on 1982's Poltergeist to help set the tone for that horror classic.
Another notable film includes the 1990s British gangster drama The Krays, which starred Spandau Ballet brothers Gary and Martin Kemp as the real-life British hardmen. He also gave future Doctor Who's Christopher Eccleston his first film role in 1991's Let Him Have It, which saw him play Derek Bentley, a British man controversially hanged for the murder of a policeman under the legal principle of joint enterprise, despite not firing the fatal shot.
