You must all remember the car chase on the streets of San Francisco with Steve McQueen at the wheel of a Mustang in ‘Bullitt‘. Peter Yates, four-time Oscar Nominee, has passed away at age 82 in London on Sunday. The British director started out as an actor before becoming an assistant director. He made his directorial debut with Summer Holiday and then directed Robbery, John and Mary, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Krull, The Dresser and the memorable The Deep.

We have read an interesting fact from the obituary published by the Los Angeles Times:

Along with the classic chase sequence in “Bullitt,” the appearance of Bisset diving in a body-clinging white T-shirt in “The Deep” provided another iconic moment in Yates’ filmography.Yates chuckled when asked by the Independent of London in 1997 if it bothered him that his career could be “distilled down to such basics.” “My son accused me of exactly that,” he said. “He told me recently that I’d contributed two things to American culture — the car chase and the wet T-shirt.” But, he said, “It’s better to contribute something than absolutely nothing.”

Being ‘distilled down to such basics’ is not a shame, on the contrary. These ‘basics‘ have definitely contributed to American culture. And to ours as well. Earlier this morning, Max Dana tweetedabout Peter Yates’ death and shared two of her previous posts about Bullitt: Car chases in movies: Bullitt, Terminator 2, Mad Max 2… and Steve McQueen: Bullitt chase scene GPS tracked. Many of us will never forget these ‘basics‘!