Jules Bass
Jules Bass (born September 16, 1935) is an American director, producer, composer, lyricist, and author. Until 1960, he worked at a New York advertising agency, and then co-founded a film production company in New York. He joined ASCAP in 1963 and collaborated musically with Edward Thomas and James Polack. Life and career. Bass was born in Philadelphia. Educated at New York University, he first worked at an advertising agency in New York until the early 1960s, when he founded the film production company Videocraft International (now called Rankin/Bass) with his partner Arthur Rankin Jr. He is  known for his collaborations with Arthur Rankin Jr., co-directing and producing a wide array of stop motion animated features and cartoons, notably the hit cartoon "ThunderCats" (1985–1989). He composed the score for some of these films, collaborating with Maury Laws. Bass also served as lyricist for several songs. He has also solo directed some Rankin/Bass features, such as "Mad Monster Party" (1967) and "The Daydreamer" (1966). Bass also wrote for some of the company's specials under the pseudonym "Julian P. Gardner", some of which include "The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow", "The Life  & Adventures of Santa Claus", and the Emmy Award nominated "The Little Drummer Boy, Book II". Bass stopped directing and producing films on March 4, 1987, but most recently he has written a series of children's books, based around the character of "Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon".