Ron Kass

Born:

Mar 30, 1935

Died:

Oct 17, 1986

About

From Wikipedia:

Ron Kass (March 30, 1935 – October 17, 1986) was an American businessman, recording executive, manager of The Beatles, and film producer. Kass worked with at least four recording companies: Liberty, MGM, Warner Brothers, and Apple Records.

Early life

Born Ronald Stanley Kashinoff in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, his family changed the name to Kass when they moved to California. He attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles where he played in a band that became Tijuana Brass and then got a degree in accounting from UCLA.

Career

Kass married his UCLA sweetheart, Anita, and started working for Liberty Records which was directly across from Hollywood High School. He was promoted to overseas manager and eventually president of Liberty. He started working for Apple Records, the label set up by The Beatles, in 1968 and 1969 which was when he divorced Anita.

He was effectively forced from his position at Apple by the Beatles’ new manager Allen Klein after he was falsely accused of “financial impropriety” (he was succeeded in the position by his former deputy Jack Oliver).

Kass’s film producing credits included Melody (1971), The Optimists (1973) starring Peter Sellers, Naked Yoga (1974) nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject, The Stud (1978) and The Bitch (1979) both based on novels by Jackie Collins, and starring her sister Joan Collins. […]