Jules Bass, Producer Of 'Rudolph' & 'Frosty' TV Specials, Dies At 87 In Rye

RYE, NY — The man who helped teach us that Father Time must keep marching forward has achieved a difficult-to-attain timelessness in his passing.

Jules Bass, the producer/director/animator/composer of the 1964 movie "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and 1970s "Frosty the Snowman" holiday television specials, died Tuesday at the Osborn assisted living facility in Rye, his publicist Jennifer Fisherman Ruff told Entertainment Weekly. He was 87 years old.

Bass was most famous for creating stop-motion and animated television programs in the 1960s and 1970s with his partner and ABC art director Arthur Rankin Jr. Their company, eventually known as Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment, developed several holiday specials with some of the biggest names of the day, including Mickey Rooney, Fred Astaire and Burl Ives.

Some of their other productions included "The Year Without a Santa Claus," "Rudolph's Shiny New Year," "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," "Pinocchio's Christmas," "Mad Monster Party" and "The Little Drummer Boy."

Bass and Rankin earned Emmy nods for "The Little Drummer Boy Book II," and won a Peabody Award for an animated version of "The Hobbit."

Bass was born in Philadelphia, attended NYU and worked in advertising before joining forces with Rankin.

After retiring from producing and directing in 1987, Bass started writing books, including children's books, "Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon," and "Headhunters."

His daughter, Jean Nicole Bass, died in January of this year, at the age of 61.