Widely considered an “actor’s director,” Medak’s sixty-year career spanned film, television, and the stage, often earning praise for drawing career-best performances from his stars. Born in Budapest, Hungary, Medak fled his native country for England during the Hungarian Uprising at 18, where he began training at Associated British-Pathé and worked as an assistant director on films such as the 1962 Hammer Horror film The Phantom Of The Opera. His diligence on the set of the British comedy The V.I.P.s, co-starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, attracted the attention of Universal and Paramount Pictures. While his debut feature for Paramount, the 1968 erotic drama Negatives, received baffled but encouraging notices, it led to the black comedy A Day In The Death of Joe Egg and The Ruling Class in 1972. The latter earned Medak a nomination for the Palme d’Or at Cannes and an Academy Award nomination for his star, Peter O’Toole.
Medak returned to horror with the highly regarded 1980 film The Changeling, and followed that with the wacky swashbuckler, Zorro, The Gay Blade, starring George Hamilton, in 1981. Between those productions, his made-for-TV thriller The Babysitter, starring Patty Duke and William Shatner, premiered on ABC. Soon, Medak helmed episodes of TV series such as Hart To Hart, Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre, and the reboot of The Twilight Zone, which featured writers Harlan Ellison and George R.R. Martin. He kicked off his 90s directing the British gangster film The Krays, starring New Wavers and real-life brothers Gary and Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet, and Let Him Have It, with Christopher Eccleston and Tom Courtenay. In 1993, he directed the twisty thriller Romeo Is Bleeding, starring Gary Oldman and Lena Olin. After a few career setbacks, Pontiac Moon with Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen and the sci-fi/horror sequel Species II among them, Medak returned to TV and contributed to prestige series such as The Wire, Carnivàle, Breaking Bad, House, and Hannibal.
Medak’s last film was the 2018 documentary The Ghost Of Peter Sellers, which detailed the production of his famously calamitous 1973 comedy Ghost In The Noonday Sun, which starred Peter Sellers. “Oh, it was probably the biggest nightmare of my life,” he said in a 2007 interview for the Directors Guild Of America.
Medak was married to Catherine Marie La Kermance until her death in 1972. He later married English actress Carolyn Seymour (1973 to 1984) and opera singer Julia Migenes (1988 to 2003). Medak is survived by four children, Christopher, Joshua, Karen, and Cornelia, and five grandchildren, Sacha, Marlowe, Ryden, Oliver, and Anders.
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