Oscar Profile #477: Peter Yates

Born July 24, 1929 in Hampshire, England, Peter Yates was 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 drivers Stirling Moss and Peter Collins.

Yates started in the film industry doing odd jobs such as dubbing foreign films and editing documentaries, eventually becoming a leading assistant director.

He was an assistant director to Mark Robson on 1958’s The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Jack Cardiff on 1960’s Sons and Lovers, Tony Richardson on 1960’s The Entertainer and 1961’s A Taste of Honey, J. Lee Thompson on 1961’s The Guns of Navarone and José Quintero on 1961’s The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, among others. Through the influence of Richardson, he directed Albee’s An American Dream and The Death of Bessie Smith at London’s Royal Court Theatre.

Yates’ first film as director was 1963’s Summer Holiday starring Cliff Richards. After several years of directing episodes of TV’s The Saint starring Roger Moore and Secret Agent starring Patrick McGoohan, he moved to Hollywood where he got his big break with 1968’s Bullitt starring Steve McQueen for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Director. His next two films, 1969’s John and Mary starring Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow and 1971’s Murphy’s War starring Peter O’Toole were disappointments, but his following two, 1972’s The Hot Rock starring Robert Redford George Segal and 1973’s The Friends of Eddie Coyle starring Robert Mitchum were well received.

1974’s For Pete’s Sake starring Barbra Streisand and Michael Sarrazin was a modest success. 1976’s Mother, Jugs & Speed starring Bill Cosby, Raquel Wlech and Harvey Keitel was critically lambasted. 1977’s The Deep starring Jacqueline Bisset and Nick Nolte was a box-office smash. Then came the highlight of his career, 1979’s critically acclaimed Breaking Away starring Dennis Christopher and Dennis Quaid, which earned him Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director.

Following the success of Breaking Away, Yates made another ten films through 1995 including 1983’s The Dresser starring Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay for which he was nominated by both Oscar and BAFTA for Best Picture and Director. Also of note were 1987’s Suspect starring Cher and Dennis Quaid and The House on Carroll Street starring Kelly McGillis and Jeff Daniels and 1995’s Roommates starring Peter Falk and D.B. Sweeney and The Run of the Country starring Albert Finney and Matt Keeslar.

Back in England, Yates made his last theatrical film, 1998’s unsuccessful Curtain Call starring James Spader, Michael Caine and Maggie Smith. He then directed two TV movies, 2000’s Don Quixote and 2004’s A Separate Peace before retiring.

Peter Yates died January 9, 2011 at 81.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

BULLITT (1968)

Originally about a Boston detective who never made an arrest and didn’t chase anybody, this was meant for Spencer Tracy but went to Steve McQueen after Tracy’s death. McQueen chose Yates to direct based on the chase sequence in his 1967 British film, Robbery. This would have been Yates’ first film made in his new hometown of Los Angeles except that producer Phil D’Antoni moved the production to San Francisco where then mayor Joe Alioto pulled the strings to give the film unfettered use of the city which became as much of a star of the film as McQueen. Oscar nominated for Best Sound and Film Editing, winning for the latter.

THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (1973)

One of Yates’ three personal favorites of his films, along with Breaking Away and The Dresser, this lowkey gangster movie was filmed on location in Boston without any of the chase scenes fans of Bullitt or William Friedkin’s 1971 film, The French Connection, expected and thus suffered at the box-office. Fans of star Robert Mitchum were also disappointed that the aging star was playing a two-time loser who turns police informant to avoid a long prison term for what would have been his third conviction. In retrospect, however, Mitchum’s performance is generally considered his best.

BREAKING AWAY (1979)

The National Society of Film Critics voted this delightful film Best Picture of its year. Th Golden Globes voted it Best Film – Comedy or Musical and Oscar gave it five nominations including two for Yates (Best Picture and Director) and gave screenwriter Steve Tesich the award for Best Original Screenplay. Dennis Christopher, in a BAFTA nominated performance, impressed mightily as the high school student impressed by all things Italian until the Italian cycling team does him dirty. Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and Jackie Earle Haley were also fine as his friends as were Paul Dooley and Oscar nominated Barbara Barrie as his parents.

THE DRESSER (1983)

Oscar and BAFTA both gave Yates two nominations (Best Picture, Director). Oscar gave five nods overall, BAFTA gave it seven, the Golden Globes gave it a total of five nominations with and gave Tom Courtenay an award for Best Actor – Drama in a tie with Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies. Courtenay played the title character, the personal assistant to an aging actor struggling to get through a performance of King Lear. Albert Finney, who played the aging actor, had been nominated for the same awards as Courtenay. He finally won one of his own at the 1984 Berlin Film Festival as did Yates.

SUSPECT (1987)

Although the film won no awards, Cher, who plays a Washington, D.C. public defender, was a serious contender for the year’s various Best Actress awards, but that all changed when Moonstruck, the film for which she won her Oscar, was released two months later. This absorbing thriller also features fine performances from Dennis Quaid as an inquisitive juror, Liam Neeson as the homeless man falsely accused of murdering a Justice Department file clerk and John Mahoney and Philip Bosco as judges. The plot may have more holes in it than Swiss cheese, but it is sublimely served.