When I was a kid, I was fortunate enough to grow up in an old farmhouse in Fairfield, Connecticut—a special place. What young boy wouldn’t love a home with horse and cow stalls, a chicken coop, a creamery, and various other outbuildings filled with mysterious things to explore and places to hide?

But when I was in eighth grade, my sister and brother were away at school and there just wasn’t much point for a home with ten or so outbuildings on the property for my father, mother and myself.

So we moved into a still wonderful but more traditional home down the block, on Congress Street. There was one thing that I thought was particularly cool about it: The prior occupants were British director Peter Yates and his family, whom we knew a bit. Very exciting! Our house had been owned by the guy who directed Bullit and Breaking Away!

Unexpectedly, I saw in the paper yesterday that Mr. Yates (as I knew him) had died.

Mr. Yates was nominated for two Academy Awards for directing, for “Breaking Away” (1979), an underdog-triumphs story in which four local teenagers in Bloomington, Ind., take on a privileged team of bicycle racers from Indiana University; and for “The Dresser” (1983), an adaptation of Ronald Harwood’s play about an aging theater actor and his long-serving assistant, which starred Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay. (Both films, which Mr. Yates also produced, were nominated for best picture as well.)

I’ve lost touch with his children, Miranda and Toby, since the old days. But my thoughts are with them.

Here’s the trailer for Breaking Away. Couple things: First, trailers were weird back then. (This trailer completely mischaracterizes what I remember as a pretty dark and gritty film.)

Second, what a cast!