Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Peter Medak

 
Director: Peter Medak
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Dec 23, 1937 in Budapest, Hungary
  • Occupation: Director, Actor
  • Active: '70s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: The Krays, Romeo Is Bleeding, Zorro, the Gay Blade
  • First Major Screen Credit: Negatives (1968)

Biography

Were it not for the Russian put-down of the Hungarian uprising in 1956, director Peter Medak might well have been one of the leading lights of the New Hungarian Cinema of the 1970s. As it happened, Medak was forced to flee to Britain, where after a lengthy apprenticeship he was allowed to direct TV movies and to work as second-unit director on such films as Kaleidescope (1966) and Funeral in Berlin (1967). After making his theatrical-film directorial bow in 1968, Medak garnered praise for his handling of the very black comedy A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1972). He followed this with The Ruling Class (1972) a rude, irreverent, achingly funny combination of theatrical and cinematic knowhow which skewered every traditional value held near and dear by the British aristocracy (the hero imagines he's Jesus Christ, then switches to Jack the Ripper). In between bread-and-butter assignments like Zorro the Gay Blade (1982), Medak has continued pushing the envelope of taste and style with such films as The Krays, a 1990 crime story concerning London's notorious identical-twin gang bosses (whom Medak knew personally), and Romeo Is Bleeding (1994), a horrifying and sometimes darkly hilarious study of modern-day gang activity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Wikipedia: Peter Medak
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Ambox content.png
 This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2008)
(Find sources: Peter Medak – news, books, scholar)

Peter Medak (born 23 December 1937) is a Hungarian-born film director of British and American films.

He was born in Budapest, Hungary to a Jewish family, but in 1956 fled his native country for England due to the Hungarian Revolution. There he began a career in the film business, starting as a trainee and gradually rising until he became a film director. He 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 feature was Negatives, released in 1968.

Since then he has experienced an uneven career, producing some significant successes and a number of what were considered commercial failures. Some of his most notable works are: The Ruling Class (1972); The Changeling (1980); The Krays (1990), written by the artist and dramatist Philip Ridley; and Let Him Have It (1991). He has also directed a number of television episodes and movies, including the The Feast of All Saints mini-series in 2001. In 2002 he directed two episodes of the HBO drama The Wire.[1][2][3][4] He also directed an episode of Carnivàle for HBO in 2003.[5]

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

Partial filmography

References

  1. ^ a b "Episode guide - episode 03 The Buys". HBO. 2004. http://www.hbo.com/thewire/episode/season1/episode03.shtml. Retrieved 2006-07-26. 
  2. ^ a b "The Buys". David Simon, Ed Burns. The Wire. HBO. 2002-06-16. No. 3, season 1.
  3. ^ a b "Episode guide - episode 05 The Pager". HBO. 2004. http://www.hbo.com/thewire/episode/season1/episode05.shtml. Retrieved 2006-07-26. 
  4. ^ a b "The Pager". David Simon, Ed Burns. The Wire. HBO. 2002-06-30. No. 5, season 1.
  5. ^ a b "Black Blizzard". Peter Medak, Writ. William Schmidt. Carnivàle. HBO. 2003-10-05. No. 4, season 1.

External links


Stub icon This article about a Hungarian film director is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Director. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Peter Medak".  Read more