Acclaimed director Peter Medak, whose career spanned from Breaking Bad and The Wire to some of Britain's most celebrated films, has died aged 88. The Hungarian-born filmmaker died peacefully in Los Angeles on Tuesday, October 27, his family confirmed. No cause of death has been announced.
A Career Across Film and Television
Medak spent six decades working in film and television, directing episodes of some of the most beloved dramas in TV history, including Breaking Bad, The Wire, Hannibal, House and Homicide: Life on the Street.
Before directing the exploits of Walter White and Baltimore's criminal underworld, Medak had established himself as one of British cinema's most distinctive talents. His 1972 satirical drama The Ruling Class, starring Peter O'Toole as an aristocrat convinced he is Jesus Christ, earned the actor an Academy Award nomination.
British Cinema and Cult Classics
He later found success with the 1980 supernatural horror The Changeling, starring George C Scott, which became a cult classic and earned admirers including legendary directors Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Spielberg was reportedly so impressed by the film that he screened it for the crew of Poltergeist to demonstrate the atmosphere he wanted to achieve.
British audiences will also remember Medak for his 1990 gangster drama The Krays, which starred Spandau Ballet brothers Gary and Martin Kemp as notorious East End criminals Ronnie and Reggie Kray. He followed it with the 1991 true-crime drama Let Him Have It, starring Christopher Eccleston, before directing Gary Oldman in the 1993 thriller Romeo Is Bleeding.
Tributes and Early Life
Tributes have begun pouring in for the filmmaker, with actor Malcolm McDowell remembering him as one of his closest friends. Sharing a photograph of the pair on Instagram, the A Clockwork Orange star wrote: 'One of my oldest and dearest friends, Peter Medak, has left us.' He praised Medak as a wonderful director and recalled their decades-long friendship, adding: 'I loved him very much. RIP.'
Medak's journey into Hollywood began in Budapest, where he was born in December 1937. As a child, he and his Jewish family were forced into hiding during the Second World War. He later fled Hungary during the 1956 uprising against Soviet rule, eventually settling in London, where his aunt, an opera singer, helped him find work in the film industry.
Later Career and Legacy
Beginning as a trainee at Associated British-Pathé, he worked his way through various departments before making his feature directorial debut with the 1968 thriller Negatives, starring Glenda Jackson. Not every project went according to plan, however. His 1974 comedy Ghost in the Noonday Sun, starring Peter Sellers, became notorious for its chaotic production, with Medak later describing the experience as one of the greatest nightmares of his career.
The troubled film was shelved for years, but Medak eventually revisited the ordeal in his 2018 documentary The Ghost of Peter Sellers. Despite the setbacks, he continued directing for decades, moving effortlessly between horror, crime, comedy and television. Medak is survived by his four children, Christopher, Cornelia, Joshua and Karen, and five grandchildren.
