Peter James Yates (24 July 1929 – 9 January 2011) was an English film director and producer. Biography Early life Yates was born in Aldershot, Hampshire. The son of an army officer, he 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 Stirling Moss and Peter Collins. Early film industry jobs and assistant director In the 1950s he started in the film industry doing odd jobs such as dubbing foreign films and editing documentaries. He eventually became a leading assistant director. He was an assistant director to Mark Robson on The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), Terence Young on Serious Charge (1959) with Cliff Richard, Terry Bishop on Cover Girl Killer (1959), Guy Hamilton on A Touch of Larceny (1960), Jack Cardiff on Sons and Lovers (1960), Tony Richardson on The Entertainer (1960) and A Taste of Honey (1961), J. Lee Thompson on The Guns of Navarone (1961) and José Quintero on The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961).). Through the influence of Richardson, he directed Albee's The American Dream and The Death of Bessie Smith at London's Royal Court Theatre. Early features as director Yates' first feature as director was Summer Holiday (1963), a "lightweight" vehicle for Cliff Richard. It was the second most popular movie at the British box office in 1963. Yates had seen the original Royal Court production of N.F. Simpson's play One Way Pendulum and got the job of making the film version released in 1964. It was produced by Michael Deeley. The movie was not widely seen. During the mid 1960s, Yates directed episodes of television, notably The Saint and Danger Man. Yates' third feature as director was the heist film Robbery (1967), a fictionalised version of the Great Train Robbery of 1963 starring Stanley Baker and produced by Deeley. Bullitt and Hollywood Robbery was a critical success in the US and led to an offer to direct Bullitt (1968), of which Bruce Weber has written, "Mr. Yates's reputation probably rests most securely on Bullitt (1968), his first American film – and indeed, on one particular scene, an extended car chase that instantly became a classic." Yates later said, "In Hollywood back then, everyone knew a British director couldn't