Early life

Born in Budapest, Hungary, he was the son of Elisabeth (née Diamounstein) and Gyula Medak, a textile manufacturer. His family was Jewish. In 1956, he fled his native country for England due to the Hungarian Revolution. There he embarked on a career in the film industry, starting as a trainee and gradually rising to the position of film director.

Career

Medak was signed to direct television films for MCA Universal Pictures in 1963. In 1967, he signed with Paramount Pictures to make feature films. His first such film was Negatives (1968).

Some of his most notable other works are The Ruling Class (1972), The Changeling (1980), The Krays (1990) and Let Him Have It (1991).

Medak has also directed a number of TV episodes and films, including the The Feast of All Saints (a mini-series), Homicide: Life on the Street, The Wire and Carnivàle.

Personal life

His first wife, Katherine La Kermance, with whom he had two children, died in London in the 1970s. He had two further children with his second wife, the English actress Carolyn Seymour, from whom he was later divorced. Medak was then married to opera singer Julia Migenes from 1988 to 2003.

Partial filmography

• Negatives (1968)
• The Ruling Class (1972)
• A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1972)
• Ghost in the Noonday Sun (1973)
• The Odd Job (1978)
• The Changeling (1980)
• The Babysitter (1980)
• Zorro, The Gay Blade (1981)
• The Men's Club (1986)
• The Metamorphosis, a Study: Nabokov on Kafka (1989)
• The Krays (1990)
• Let Him Have It (1991)
• Romeo is Bleeding (1993)
• Species II (1998)
• The Feast of All Saints (2001) (TV mini-series)
• Masters of Horror (2007)
  • Episode "The Washingtonians"
• The Wire (2002) episodes:
  • Episode 1.03 "The Buys"
  • Episode 1.05 "The Pager"
• Carnivàle (2003)
  • Episode 1.04 "Black Blizzard"
• House (2004)
  • Episodes 1.6 "The Socratic Method"
• Sex and Lies in Sin City (2008)
• Breaking Bad (2009)
  • Episode 2.06 "Peekaboo"
• "Hannibal" (2013)
  • Episode 1.04 "Œuf"
  • Episode 2.03 "Hassun"
• "The Ghost of Peter Sellers" (2016)
• Fallen Moon (in pre-production)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]