Jules Bass, producer behind Frosty the Snowman and more TV holiday staples, dies at 87
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Jules Bass, the director, producer, and composer behind animated and stop-motion TV specials Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and more holiday staples with partner Arthur Rankin Jr., has died. He was 87.
Bass died Tuesday at an assisted living facility in New York, his publicist Jennifer Fisherman Ruff confirmed to EW.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer debuted in 1964 and featured the voice talents of Burl Ives and Billie Mae Richards. It was followed by Frosty the Snowman in 1969 featuring Jackie Vernon, Billy De Wolfe, and Jimmy Durante, and later, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town in 1970, which starred Fred Astaire and Mickey Rooney.
Everett Collection 'Frosty the Snowman'
All three titles, produced under Bass' former Rankin/Bass Productions' with the late Rankin, have remained enduring holiday staples throughout the decades. Founded in 1960, the production's other beloved stop-motion features include 1967's Mad Monster Party, 1968's The Little Drummer Boy, and 1980's Pinocchio's Christmas, among dozens more, much of which Bass and Rankin also directed.
In 1977, both Bass and Rankin earned Emmy nominations for The Little Drummer Boy Book II and received a Peabody Award for their animated adaptation of The Hobbit.
Rankin, who died in 2014 at the age of 89, said of Bass in 2004, "We sort of complemented each other. He had certain talents that I didn't have, and I had certain talents that he didn't have. I was basically an artist and a creator; he was a creator and a writer and a lyricist."
The duo's other TV projects include 1966's The Ballad of Smokey the Bear, 1967's The Wacky World of Mother Goose, 1982's The Last Unicorn, 1983's The Coneheads, and the 1985 series Thundercats. Bass also authored children's books, including Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon and Headhunters.
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