Arthur Rankin Jr.
Arthur Rankin Jr. | |
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| Born | Arthur Gardner Rankin Jr. July 19, 1924 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | January 30, 2014 (aged 89) Harrington Sound, Bermuda |
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| Years active | 1940s–1999 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | Arthur Rankin Marian Mansfield |
| Relatives | Harry Davenport (grandfather) Phyllis Rankin (grandmother) Sidney Rankin Drew (first cousin once removed) |
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Arthur Gardner Rankin Jr.[1] (July 19, 1924 – January 30, 2014) was an American director, producer and screenwriter, who mostly worked in animation.[2][3] Co-creator of Rankin/Bass Productions with his friend Jules Bass, he created stop-motion and traditional animation features such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, and the 1977 cartoon special of The Hobbit.[4][5][6] He is credited on over 1,000 television programs.[7]
Early life
[edit]Rankin was born in Baltimore,[8] the son of actors Arthur Rankin and Marian Mansfield. His paternal grandmother was actress Phyllis Rankin, and his paternal step-grandfather, who adopted his father, was actor Harry Davenport, who played Dr. Meade in the film Gone with the Wind.[7][9]
Career
[edit]Rankin began his career as an art director for the American Broadcasting Company in the 1940s.[7] In 1955, he and Jules Bass formed the production company Videocraft International to produce television commercials.[2] In 1960, they moved into the area of animation, and in 1968, changed the name of their company to Rankin/Bass Productions.[2][7] The two worked closely together for many years, co-directing and producing a wide array of stop motion animated features and cartoons, which Rankin had referred to as "Animagic".[2]
In addition to directing, Rankin primarily created the script and sketched the character concepts, which would be made into the wooden puppets by Japanese artists, including head supervisor and partner, Tadahito Mochinaga.[2] Maury Laws, a musical director for Rankin/Bass, stated that Rankin was inspired by the film