Died aged 81.
The first American film made by the British director Peter Yates was the thriller Bullitt (1968), which included a car chase considered to be one of the best ever filmed. Because of Bullitt, Yates is sometimes thought of as an action director, but his first film was a musical, Summer Holiday (1963), one of Cliff Richard's most popular hits.
Yates trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his debut as a stage director at the age of 19, before a productive period as an actor, stage manager and director at the Royal Court Theatre in London.
He also worked on a number of other well-known projects during his career, including Sons and Lovers (1960), A Taste of Honey (1961), The Guns of Navarone (1961) and The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (1961).
The pace Yates brought to 1967 movie Robbery - inspired by the Great Train Robbery of 1963 - so impressed actor Steve McQueen he requested Yates direct him in Bullitt.
Breaking Away (1979) brought Yates two Oscar nominations. He leaves a wife and three children.
- INDEPENDENT