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Ronald Jay Bass (born March 26, 1942), sometimescredited asRon Bass, is an Americanscreenwriter andfilm producer. He won anAcademy Award for writing the screenplay forBarry Levinson's filmRain Man, and films that Bass is associated with are regularly nominated for multiple motion picture awards. His films have grossed over $2 billion.^[1][2]

Bass was born inLos Angeles,California. From the age of 3 to 11, Bass was afflicted with an undiagnosed condition that kept him bedridden. His symptoms includedrespiratory problems andstomach pains with high fevers and nausea. It was during this illness, at age six, that Bass is said to have started writing.

During his teens, Bass began work on anovel, which he entitledVoleur. He completed this work at age 17 and showed it to his English teacher. He took hercritique of his first completed project quite hard. She described the writing as very good, but she felt that it was too personal to be published. Bass's response was to later burn hismanuscript. Later in life, Bass recalled "it was like the voice of God telling me I didn't have what it takes to be a writer, and I should find something practical to do with my life".^{[citation needed]} Bass would revisit his teenage writings later in life.

Bass entered law studies, first atStanford, thenYale, and finally atHarvard Law School, where he graduated in 1967 with a degree in law. He seemed quite confident about his future prospects, saying, "When I learned there was such a thing as entertainment law, I thought, 'This is where I belong'".^{[citation needed]} Back in Los Angeles, Bass began a seventeen-year career practicing law in the entertainment business. He was successful, and eventually rose to the level ofpartner in hislaw firm.

Bass has worked with his sister Diane Bass, who served as an uncreditedtechnical consultant on the filmRain Man.

As he moved up the career ladder in law, the love of writing that Bass had acquired as a child never left him. He started writing again, usually during the predawn hours before going to work. Writing and working at unusual hours became a lifelong habit of his. In 1974, he began to rework his novelVoleur, apparently from memory, as he had burned the manuscript in a fit of pique when he was 17. In 1978, he completed the work, renaming itThe Perfect Thief (ISBN 0-515-04622-1). This was the first of his three published novels. In 1982, Bass published his second novel,Lime's crisis: A novel (ISBN 0-688-01025-3). TheLime referred to in the title isHarry Lime, the central mystery character of the 1949 motion pictureThe Third Man. On January 1, 1984, his third novel was published,The Emerald Illusion (ISBN 0-688-02622-2). The following year, he wrote the screenplayCode Name: Emerald, based on this novel. It was his debut as a screenwriter with a produced script.^[3]

As a screenwriter, Bass is known for successfully working in collaboration with other writers, includingAmy Tan onThe Joy Luck Club andAl Franken onWhen a Man Loves a Woman. He also collaborated on the script for the 2022 filmThe King's Daughter.^{[citation needed]}

Ron is currently under contract to write an original Screenplay entitled "Pegasus" for Pegasus Productions Corp.

A small controversy has arisen over Bass's use of assistants to help him write screenplays. While it is common for screenwriters to employ assistants to help them with research and typing, Bass employs six or seven mostly female assistants that one journalist dubbed "The Ronettes". According to Bass, his assistants help him in research and also in critiquing his scripts. They enable him to write, revise, or polish a comparatively large number of screenplays each year.^[4][5]

• The Perfect Thief, 1978,ISBN 0-515-04622-1
• Lime's crisis: A novel, 1982,ISBN 0-688-01025-3
• The Emerald Illusion, January 1, 1984,ISBN 0-688-02622-2

Please see theWGA screenwriting credit system for an explanation of the termsstory by,screenplay by, andwritten by. Also note that under the rules of theWriters Guild of America, Bass has not received on-screen credit for every script he has contributed to. It is thought that Bass has helped to write or consulted on more than 100 screenplays (not all of which have necessarily been produced).^{[citation needed]}

• Ronald Bass atIMDb
• Bass's entry at the Screenwriter's Utopia
• A Harvard Alumni article on Bass
• Commentary on Bass from Lukeford.net
• Hollywood.com, lists "milestones" in Bass's life atarchive.today (archived 2013-01-25)
• Bio page from the official website of How Stella Got Her Groove Back
• A brief excerpt from Reuters/Variety occurs toward the end of this page from Talent Develop.com
• A MovieMaker.com article featuring a sidebar bio on Bass
• A bio from Screenmancer.tv
• An interview with Sight & Sound

• American male screenwriters
• Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners
• 20th-century American novelists
• 20th-century American male writers
• 1942 births
• Living people
• Harvard Law School alumni
• American male novelists
• American male television writers
• American television writers

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