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7 items from 2011

10 January 2011 5:17 PM, PST | HollywoodChicago.com | See recent HollywoodChicago.com news »

Chicago – On the stadium set of “Breaking Away,” during the 1978 filming of the climatic bike race sequence, an extra ran up to director Peter Yates and handed him a cold beer. The filmmaker raised it high, and lustily took a drink. The onlookers roared their approval for the characteristic gesture. Peter Yates passed away yesterday at age 81.

British born, Yates graduated from London’s Royal Academy of the Arts, where he began as an actor. Afterward, he performed in repertory theater and did some race car driving, before working his way up through the British film system as an editor and assistant director. His first film as director was a 1963 musical, directing the “British Elvis,” Cliff Richard, in “Summer Holiday.”

Steve McQueen (left) is directed by Peter Yates on the set of ‘Bullitt’

Photo credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

Yates came to Hollywood for the memorable “Bullitt” (1968) starring Steve McQueen. In that film, »

- adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

10 January 2011 4:00 PM, PST | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

Versatile British film director known for Bullitt, The Deep and Breaking Away

The director Peter Yates, who has died aged 81, helped Steve McQueen achieve iconic status with the cop movie Bullitt (1968), enjoyed a massive box-office success with The Deep (1977) and made one of the most beguiling of all youth movies in Breaking Away (1979). He maintained a steady career throughout five decades, initially in the theatre and then in mainstream cinema, but he suffered the critical neglect so often accorded those who tackle a variety of subjects and genres and become known, somewhat disparagingly, as journeyman directors.

Pauline Kael described him as a competent director "with a good serviceable technique for integrating staged movie action into documentary city locations". David Thomson suggested that, in America, Yates had "done nothing more profound than send hubcaps careering around corners". Bullitt's famous San Francisco car chase (later revived by Ford as part of »

- Brian Baxter

10 January 2011 3:57 AM, PST | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

British director of Summer Holiday, Breaking Away and Steve McQueen film Bullitt has died after long illness

Peter Yates, the four-time Oscar-nominated British director of Bullitt, Breaking Away and The Dresser, has died in London after a long illness. He was 82.

A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art whose first film as a director was the lightweight Cliff Richard and the Shadows vehicle Summer Holiday, Yates made his name with the action-packed 1967 crime thriller Robbery, a dramatisation of the great train robbery. Hollywood beckoned, and Yates's first Us effort, Bullitt, featured the first car chase in the modern style, with star Steve McQueen himself taking the wheel for a large part of a bravura extended sequence in which his Ford Mustang slaloms and chicanes through the streets of San Francisco.

Academy recognition came later in Yates's career with the 1979 coming-of-age tale Breaking Away. The comedy about four working-class »

- Ben Child

10 January 2011 1:00 AM, PST | Moviefone | See recent Moviefone news »

Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical

There's just something about the "old guard" UK film directors that makes them so memorable. A filmmaker like Peter Yates might not be mentioned all that much these days, but to a certain generation of film fanatics his was always known as a reliable name. That's not to say that all his films were classics, but even on the lighter or even sillier projects, there was a competence and confidence that most British filmmakers exhibit. Call it work ethic or class, but Peter Yates was one of those guys. The 81-year-old passed away over the weekend in his native London.

Oscar-nominated twice as a director (for the excellent 'Breaking Away' and the unfairly forgotten 'The Dresser') and then once again as a producer on both films, Mr. Yates had a colorful career of hits and misses, but one never got the »

- Scott Weinberg

10 January 2011 1:00 AM, PST | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »

Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical

There's just something about the "old guard" UK film directors that makes them so memorable. A filmmaker like Peter Yates might not be mentioned all that much these days, but to a certain generation of film fanatics his was always known as a reliable name. That's not to say that all his films were classics, but even on the lighter or even sillier projects, there was a competence and confidence that most British filmmakers exhibit. Call it work ethic or class, but Peter Yates was one of those guys. The 81-year-old passed away over the weekend in his native London.

Oscar-nominated twice as a director (for the excellent 'Breaking Away' and the unfairly forgotten 'The Dresser') and then once again as a producer on both films, Mr. Yates had a colorful career of hits and misses, but one never got the »

- Scott Weinberg

9 January 2011 11:58 PM, PST | Slash Film | See recent Slash Film news »

Four time Oscar-nominated British director Peter Yates has passed away at the age of 82. Deadline [1] reports that he died in London after a long illness. Yates is probably best known for the 1968 Steve McQueen film Bullitt, the 1983 Oscar-nominated drama The Dresser, the 1983 cult fantasy film Krull, the 1977 horror/thriller The Deep, and the 1979 sports drama Breaking Away. His filmography also includes Curtain Call, The Run of the Country, Roommates, Year of the Comet, An Innocent Man, The House on Carroll Street, Suspect, Eleni, The Dresser, Eyewitness, Mother Jugs & Speed, For Pete's Sake, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Hot Rock, Murphy's War and John and Mary, and Robbery. I've included trailers for some of these films after the jump. Please feel free to post in remembrance of Yates (and the movies he directed) in the comments below. Bullitt Krull Breaking Away The Deep The Dresser The Hot Rock [1] http://www. »

- Peter Sciretta

9 January 2011 9:52 PM, PST | Deadline Hollywood | See recent Deadline Hollywood news »

Deadline has learned that English film director and producer and 4-time Oscar nominee Peter Yates -- who helmed such celebrated and dissimilar films as Bullitt, The Friends Of Eddie Coyle, Breaking Away, Suspect, and The Dresser -- has passed away in London after a long illness. He was 82. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he was a stage actor before working as an assistant director for Tony Richardson. Yates' feature directorial debut was the early 1960s low-budget Summer Holiday (1963) with Cliff Richard And The Shadows. He soon graduated to the 1967 crime thriller Robbery, a fictionalized version of Britain's The Great Train Robbery. It was a short jump to his first American film, Bullitt (1968), starring Steve McQueen in one of the definitive cop movies of all time thanks to that car chase through the streets of San Francisco. Other films he directed included John and Mary (1969), Murphy's War »

- NIKKI FINKE

7 items from 2011