Trivia

Son of actor/writer Arthur Rankin.

Retired, living on Harrington Sound, Bermuda. (2008)

He started out as an art director at ABC in the late 1940s, painting sets and doing graphic design.

Survived by his wife Olga, and by sons Gardner (full name: Arthur Gardner Rankin III) and Todd Rankin.

Grandson of Harry Davenport and Phyllis Franklin. Great-grandson of McKee Rankin. Half-nephew of Dorothy Davenport and Wallace Reid, half-cousin of Wallace Reid Jr..

With Jules Bass, produced and directed 'The Hobbit (1977)(TV)' and 'The Return of the King (1980)(TV)', both of which were later remade as live-action films by Peter Jackson. Both films also feature some casting similarities. Rankin and Bass hired Orson Bean to be the voice of Bilbo, and later Frodo as well. The older Bilbo in Jackson's film is played by Ian Holm, largely on account of his having played Frodo in the BBC Radio version. The three trolls in Le Hobbit : Un Voyage Inattendu (2012) are all voiced by actors who also play one of the dwarves. Rankin and Bass's version did the same, although the actors do not play the same dwarves in both versions.

Nephew of Kate Davenport, Ann Davenport, and first cousin of Dirk Wayne Summers.