Ronald Bass

• Name — Ronald Bass • Birth Name — Ronald Jay Bass • Occupation — Screenwriter, film producer • Notable Works — Rain Man • Born — 26 March 1942 • Birthplace — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Education — Stanford University (BA) Yale University (MA) Harvard University (JD) • Awards — Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay Rain Man (1988)

Bass was born in Los Angeles, California. From the age of 3 to 11, Bass was afflicted with an undiagnosed condition that kept him bedridden. His symptoms included respiratory problems and stomach 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 a novel, which he entitled Voleur. He completed this work at age 17 and showed it to his English teacher. He took her critique 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 his manuscript. 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". Bass would revisit his teenage writings later in life. Bass entered law studies, first at Stanford, then Yale, and finally at Harvard 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'". 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 of partner in his law firm. Bass has worked with his sister Diane Bass, who served as an uncredited technical consultant on the film Rain 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 novel Voleur, 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 it The Perfect Thief. This was the first of his three published novels. In 1982, Bass published his second novel, Lime's crisis: A novel. The Lime referred to in the title is Harry Lime, the central mystery character of the 1949 motion picture The Third Man. On January 1, 1984, his third novel was published, The Emerald Illusion. The following year, he wrote the screenplay Code Name: Emerald, based on this novel. It was his debut as a screenwriter with a produced script. As a screenwriter, Bass is known for successfully working in collaboration with other writers, including Amy Tan on The Joy Luck Club and Al Franken on When a Man Loves a Woman. He also collaborated on the script for the 2022 film The King's Daughter.. In 2025, Ron Bass, Jay Paul Deratany and Sonia Kifferstein co-wrote the feature film 21 Down a true story starring Ashley Judd. 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.

• The Perfect Thief, 1978, • Lime's crisis: A novel, 1982, • The Emerald Illusion, January 1, 1984,