Jules Bass, whose work as a producer and director of stop-motion and animated television specials such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town and The Year Without A Santa Claus has become an integral part of the holiday season for generations, died today in Rye, New York, of age-related illnesses. He was 87.
His death was confirmed by publicist Jennifer Fisherman Ruff.
Bass was working in advertising in New York City when, in 1960, he teamed up with an art director at ABC named Arthur Rankin Jr. to form a film production company called Videocraft International. The company was launched with the 1960 series The New Adventures of Pinocchio, utilizing traditional animation, but found its breakthrough success in 1964 with the stop-motion classic Rudolph, featuring the voice of Burl Ives as Sam the Snowman.
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Rankin died in 2014 at 89.
Based on the Johnny Marks-written Gene Autry hit song of 1949, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer would contribute a slew of original songs, also by Marks, to the nation’s holiday playlist, including “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” “Silver and Gold” and “Jingle, Jingle, Jingle.”
The immediate success of Rudolph placed the special firmly in league with other 1960s holiday fare that would become enduring holiday staples, including A Charlie Brown Christmas and How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
Rudolph also paved the way for Rankin/Bass’s premiere spot as a maker of holiday TV specials. Subsequent productions including the traditionally-animated Frosty the Snowman, with the voices of Jackie Vernon and Jimmy Durante, in 1969; and the stop-motion specials The Little Drummer Boy (1968); Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1970); and The Year Without A Santa Claus (1974), among numerous others.
The company branched out to other holidays as well, producing the 1967 stop-motion feature film Mad Monster Party, featuring the voices of Boris Karloff and Phyllis Diller, and in 1971, The TV Easter special Here Comes Peter Cottontail. Both of those projects, as with many other Rankin/Bass shows, were directed or co-directed by Bass, who also composed songs for some of the specials.
Rankin/Bass would also become a player in the Saturday morning cartoon world of the 1970s and ’80s, producing, among others, The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie, Jackson 5ive and Thundercats.
In 1977, Bass and Rankin produced and co-directed the animated musical TV-movie The Hobbit for NBC, an early entry in the roster of Tolkien screen adaptations.
Bass largely retired from directing and producing in 1987, pivoting to authoring a number of children’s books featuring the character of Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon.
Bass was predeceased by his daughter Jean Nicole Bass, who died at 61 in January. He leaves no survivors.
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