In Passing

Peter Yates, movie director

London – Peter Yates, the British director of “Breaking Away,” “The Dresser” and “Bullitt,” the 1968 Steve McQueen movie whose landmark car chase sequence over the hilly streets of San Francisco was a career-defining moment for both director and star, has died. Yates, 81, died Jan. 9 in London.

In a career that began with the 1963 Cliff Richard pop musical “Summer Holiday,” Yates directed more than two dozen movies, including “Murphy’s War,” “The Hot Rock,” “The Friends of Eddie Coyle,” “For Pete’s Sake,” “The Deep,” “Mother Jugs & Speed” and “Eyewitness.”

As a director, Yates received two Academy Award nominations – for “Breaking Away,” a light-hearted coming-of-age tale set in Indiana; and for “The Dresser,” a 1983 backstage story set in wartime England with Albert Finney as an actor-manager trying to keep his company afloat.

Margaret Whiting, big band singer

Englewood, N.J. – Margaret Whiting, the sweet-voiced singer who sold millions of records in the 1940s and ’50s with sentimental ballads such as “Moonlight in Vermont” and “It Might as Well Be Spring,” has died at age 86.

She died Monday at the Lillian Booth Actors’ Home in Englewood, N.J.

Whiting grew up with the music business. She was the daughter of Richard Whiting, a prolific composer of such hits as “My Ideal,” “Sleepy Time Gal” and “Beyond the Blue Horizon.”

After Whiting’s father died in 1938, songwriter Johnny Mercer remained close to the family. When he became a founding partner in Capitol Records in 1942, the 18-year-old Whiting was the first singer he put under contract.

It was Mercer who had coached the teenage Whiting through her first recording, of her father’s “My Ideal.” She followed it with a remarkable procession of million sellers: “That Old Black Magic,” “It Might as Well Be Spring,” “Come Rain or Come Shine” and her biggest seller and signature song, “Moonlight in Vermont.”

Like most recording stars of the 1940s and early ’50s, her career was eclipsed by the rock ’n’ roll revolution, although she continued to find work in such Broadway productions as “Pal Joey,” “Gypsy” and “Call Me Madam.”

Joe Gores, mystery writer

Greenbrae, Calif. – Mystery writer Joe Gores – a former San Francisco private investigator whose books include “Hammett,” “Come Morning” and “Spade & Archer” – died Monday at age 79, reportedly of a stomach hemorrhage.

Gores wrote 16 novels and three collections of stories during his more than 40-year writing career. He may be best known for “Spade & Archer: The Prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ ” which was published in 2009.

Gores also wrote TV scripts for “Kojak” and “Columbo.”