Film editor Toby Yates, son of director Peter Yates, dies at 61

Los Angeles [US], December 29 (ANI): Toby Yates, the son of Oscar-nominated director-producer Peter Yates, died after a 40-year career as a film editor in Hollywood, as per The Hollywood Reporter. He was 61.

Yates worked often with filmmaker Karen Moncrieff, editing her debut film, ‘Blue Car,’ as well as ‘The Dead Girl’ and ‘The Trials of Cate McCall.’

He also edited’ The Moon and the Stars’ for filmmaker John Irvin, for which he got the best editor award at the Milano International Film Festival, as well as ‘The Midnight Meat Train’ and ‘No One Lives’ for director Ryuhei Kitamura.

He most recently edited Damian Harris’s film ‘Brave the Dark.’

Toby Robert Quentin Yates was born in London on September 18, 1962, and reared in both London and New York City. While in high school, he studied filmmaking and editing, first as an apprentice editor and then as an assistant editor for Roy Lovejoy (2001: A Space Odyssey, Aliens).

Yates attended the Columbia University School of Arts for film studies after graduating from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, and received the inaugural MTV Student Award for directing. He then directed plays in London and Los Angeles.

In 1998, he edited Cleopatra’s Second Husband and Brown’s Requiem, both adapted from James Ellroy’s debut novel. One of his father’s final directorial efforts, Don Quixote, starring John Lithgow, was cut in 2000.

He has worked on TV shows including Brothers & Sisters and Shameless, as well as teaching editing at the American Film Institute and Maine Media, the Hollywood Reporter reported.

His wife, designer Min Young Lee, whom he married in 2014, and his 9-year-old son Peter survive him, as do his mother, Virginia Pope Yates, a film publicist; sister Miranda; nephew Theodore; and niece Beatrice.

Notably, Peter Yates was recognized for directing ‘Bullitt,’ ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle,’ ‘The Deep,’ and ‘Suspect,’ among many other films. He received multiple directing and best picture Oscar nods for his efforts on both ‘Breaking Away’ and ‘The Dresser.’

He died of heart failure in 2011 at the age of 81.