A prolific animator who brought Frosty to life and made Rudolph the most famous reindeer ever, Jules Bass passed away Oct. 25 at a senior living facility in Rye, N.Y. He was 87. As part of his work with Arthur Rankin Jr., he produced television classics such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman.
There are few people who haven’t watched and rewatched “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which first aired on NBC in 1964, or the traditionally animated “Frosty the Snowman,” which was first broadcast in 1969.
With Arthur Rankin Jr., he formed an animation juggernaut called Rankin/Bass in 1960 [1]. In the subsequent decades, Rankin/Bass produced a number of American childhood staples by collaborating with animators and puppeteers in Japan. It was Rankin who oversaw voice actors and musicians in New York, and Mr. Bass who oversaw animation in Japan, according to Goldschmidt.
n addition to Christmas specials, Rankin/Bass produced a wide variety of other films. Also produced by the team was the feature-length stop-motion film “Mad Monster Party” (1967), the TV series “The Smokey Bear Show” (1969) and the Easter special “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” (1971).
The Hobbit (1977) animated TV movie received a Peabody Award, as did The Last Unicorn (1982), an animated feature film starring Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury, and Alan Arkin.
Notes:
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