Peter Medak, the British-Hungarian director whose films included The Changeling, The Ruling Class and The Krays, has died aged 88. His 1980 ghost story The Changeling was later praised by Martin Scorsese, who included it among his favourite horror films, and by Guillermo del Toro, who called it a masterpiece.

The Changeling stars George C. Scott as a composer mourning his wife and daughter after a car accident. He moves into an empty Seattle mansion and becomes convinced that a ghost is trying to reach him. The film’s measured pace and focus on atmosphere helped it remain unsettling decades after its release.

Medak had already attracted attention with The Ruling Class (1972), a satire featuring Peter O’Toole as an aristocrat who believes he is Jesus Christ. He later directed The Krays (1990), with Spandau Ballet’s Gary and Martin Kemp as the notorious twins, and Let Him Have It (1991), about Derek Bentley, who was hanged for a police officer’s murder despite not firing the fatal shot. Bentley’s conviction was quashed in 1998.

Born in Budapest, Medak escaped Hungary with his family during the second world war, hiding under false identities after fleeing persecution. He left Hungary for Britain at 18 during the 1956 revolution. With help from his aunt, soprano Lotte Medák, he began as a trainee at Associated British-Pathé and later worked as an assistant director on films including The Phantom of the Opera (1962) and Funeral in Berlin (1966).

His feature directing debut was Negatives (1968), followed by A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1972). A troubled production of the pirate comedy Ghost in the Noonday Sun, starring Peter Sellers, nearly derailed his career. The film was shelved and never officially released; Medak later revisited the experience in the documentary The Ghost of Peter Sellers (2018).

Medak also directed comedies including The Odd Job (1978) and Zorro – The Gay Blade (1981), as well as the thriller Romeo Is Bleeding (1993). Television provided a steady stream of work: his credits included Hart to Hart, Remington Steele, Magnum P.I., Homicide: Life on the Street, The Wire, House and Breaking Bad.

He is survived by his children Karen, Christopher, Joshua and Cornelia, five grandchildren, and his partner, Christine Wagner. His first wife, Katherine La Kermance, died in 1972; his second marriage, to Carolyn Seymour, ended in divorce.

Sources: The Guardian Film.