Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Known for: Directing
Born: July 18, 1924 in New York City, New York, USA - Died: January 29, 2014
Arthur Rankin, Jr. (July 19, 1924 - January 30, 2014) was an American-born, Bermudian director, producer and writer, mostly working in animation. The son of actor Arthur Rankin, in the early 1960s he founded the film production company Videocraft International (now called Rankin/Bass) with Jules Bass. The two worked closely together for many years, co-directing and producing a wide array of stop motion animated features and cartoons, perhaps most famously the holiday-themed TV specials, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, Rudolph's Shiny New Year, The Year Without a Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974 TV special), and Jack Frost. He is also credited with devising the story for many Rankin/Bass productions, including the featurefilms The Daydreamer and Mad Monster Party?. In 1977 Rankin and Bass produced a version of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. The pair also teamed on a wide variety of animated TV series, including ThunderCats and Silverhawks. The pair last teamed on the 1987 TV special based on The Wind in the Willows. Rankin's last producing credit was on the 1999 animated version of The King and I, in which Bass was not involved, since Arthur was a supervising animator in The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron. Rankin's grandfather was Harry Davenport, perhaps best known as Dr. Meade in Gone with the Wind (1939). Description above from the Wikipedia article Arthur Rankin, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
Showing 24 of 65 titles
Finders Keepers
Percy
The Cisco Kid and the Lady
Second Telegraph Operator
The Hobbit
Director
The Return of the King
Production Design
The Last Unicorn
Producer
The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town
Director
The Flight of Dragons
Director
Frosty's Winter Wonderland
Director
Jack Frost
Director
Frosty the Snowman
Director
The Year Without a Santa Claus
Director
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
Director
The First Easter Rabbit
Director
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
Director
The Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters
Producer
The Bermuda Depths
Story
Marco
Producer
The Daydreamer
Producer
Willy McBean & His Magic Machine
Director
Here Comes Peter Cottontail
Director
Pinocchio's Christmas
Director
The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow
Director
The Little Drummer Boy
Producer
'Twas the Night Before Christmas
Director