Peter Yates with Steve McQueen on the set of Bullitt. Image via guardian.co.uk
Film director and four-time Oscar nominee Peter Yates, who helmed every car-chase-fanatic’s favorite movie, Bullitt, has died. He was 81.
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate was a stage actor before turning to directing; he directed two films in England, 1963′s Summer Holiday and 1967′s Robbery, before he came to America and cut his Hollywood studio teeth on Bullitt. Whatever you think of the rest of the film, the chase remains the gold-standard of filmed car-chase scenes, no matter how many hubcaps fly off the Charger or how many times the Mustang upshifts.
Other films Yates directed included John and Mary (1969), Murphy’s War (1971), The Hot Rock (1972), The Friends of Eddie Coyle, (1973), For Pete’s Sake (1974), Mother, Juggs and Speed (1976), The Deep (1977), Breaking Away (1979), Eyewitness (1981), The Dresser (1983), Krull (1983), Eleni (1985), Suspect (1987), The House on Carroll Street (1988), An Innocent Man (1989), Year of the Comet (1992), Roommates (1995), and Curtain Call (1999).