Happy Birthday, Peter Yates! Born today in 1929, this English producer and film director was born in Aldershot, Hampshire.
The son of an army officer, Yates later attended Charterhouse School as a boy, graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked for some years as an actor, director and stage manager.
He directed plays in London and New York. He also spent two years as racing manager for British Formula One racing drive Stirling Moss and British racing driver Peter Collins.
In the 1950s, Yates started in the film industry doing odd jobs such as dubbing foreign films and editing documentaries. He eventually became a leading assistant director.
Yates' first feature as director was the 1963 British CinemaScope and Technicolor musical/romance film 'Summer Holiday'. This was a "lightweight" vehicle for British singer, musician, performer, actor and philanthropist Cliff Richard.
'Summer Holiday' was the second most popular feature at the British box office in the early 1960s.
During the mid 1960s, Yates directed episodes of television, notably the British thriller television series Danger Man (1960–1968) and the British ITC mystery spy thriller television series The Saint (1962–1968).
Four years later, Yates' third feature as director. This was the 1967 British Eastmancolor neo noir crime drama/mystery film 'Robbery'.
The film was a critical success in the United States, and led Yates to an offer to direct a film of which he is known the following year.
This was the 1968 American Technicolor action thriller crime film 'Bullitt', starring Steve McQueen as SFPD detective Lieutenant Frank Bullitt.
The feature is cool as ice; a thriller police procedural that also happens to contain arguably the greatest, most classic car chase in film history through the streets of San Francisco.
The sequence was masterfully assembled by American film and television editor Frank P. Keller.
Yates later said, "In Hollywood back then, everyone knew a British director couldn't do action, so I think the studio had another motive in letting me come over.
I think the reason they let McQueen bring me in was because if they let him have his way, they'd get him out of the studio – and out of their hair – for a while."
From Yate's big commercial success of his 1977 British/American adventure/thriller film 'The Deep', he used his clout to raise finance for the film of which he is best known.
This was in producing and directing the 1979 American coming of age comedy-drama sport/romance film 'Breaking Away'.
The film was shot in and around Bloomington and on the university's campus in Indiana.
This was where Serbian American screenwriter, playwright, and novelist Steven Tesich (the screenwriter for the film) was an alumnus.
The following year, 'Breaking Away' won the Golden Globe Away for Best Film (Comedy or Musical). It also received nominations in three other Golden Globe categories. This occurred at the 37th Golden Globe Awards in late January 1980.
Three months later, the film also won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (Steve Tesich).
It also received nominations in four other categories, including Best Picture. This occurred at the 52nd Academy Awards in mid-April 1980.
The film later led to a titular short-lived American drama television series that Yates also produced. However, it only lasted for one season from 1980 to 1981.
Also in the early 1980s, Yates tried fantasy with the 1983 British sci-fi fantasy/adventure swashbuckler film 'Krull'.
However, it was not a success at the box office. It had grossed $16.9 million on a budget of $27-30 million.
Yates later moved to New York. "A filmmaker must go where the stories are," he said.
In the early 1990s, after eighteen years in New York, Yates moved to Los Angeles, California.
In 2006, 'Breaking Away' was ranked eighth on the List of American's 100 Mist Inspiring Movies compiled by the American Film Institute (AFI).
In June 2008, AFI also announced its 10 Top 10 — the best ten films in ten classic American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. In that poll 'Breaking Away' ranked as the eighth best film in the sports genre.
Yates is also known for directing the 1989 American drama/crime film 'An Innocent Man' (starring Tom Selleck) and the 1992 American romantic/adventure comedy film 'Year of the Comet'.
In 2007, 'Bullitt' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Yates passed due to heart failure in London, England, United Kingdom on January 9, 2011. He was 81.
Yates has two distinct styles: one used for his thriller, action and drama projects which frequently reflects on the principal character's state of alienation with a humanistic perspective.
Another expressive and sentimental style included focusing on the moral dilemmas of the characters, predominantly seen in his coming-of-age and other dramatic films.
Yates said, "I think there's probably some truth in the theory that I prefer heroes who fight against adversity and make it through from being the underdog to winning."
Yates had been active from 1958–2010.
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