"Fritz the Cat" producer Steve Krantz dies, 83

Posted:
Jan 8, 2007

Steve Krantz, producer of the first X-rated animated feature film, died Thursday in Los Angeles at 83.

The cause of death was complications of pneumonia, Variety said.

The husband of novelist Judith Krantz, he produced the notorious 1972 film Fritz the Cat(directed by Ralph Bakshi), in which a swinging college student cat raises hell in a satiric vision of various elements on the 1960s. He also produced a 1974 sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, and another Bakshi animated feature film, Heavy Traffic(1973)

Krantz started his own company, Krantz Films, in 1960. In 1966, he acquired the rights to The Marvel Superheroes Show, which his company co-produced with Grantray-Lawrence Animation, a Canadian studio. Segments included Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, The Mighty Thor and Sub-Mariner. The series was a long-lasting success worldwide, and over 200 episodes were produced.

He started his own animation studio with branches in Los Angeles, New York and Mexico.

After Grantray-Lawrence Animation shut down, Krantz Films took over the production of Spider-Man, making 39 pisodes of the ABC series from 1968 to 1970. Krantz Films also made the 1967-69 series Rocket Robin Hood, notorious for its limited animation and repetitive scenes.

Krantz Productions' Fritz the Cat, written by Bakshi and Robert Crumb, became the first independent animated film to gross over $100 million. The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat was shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

His company co-produced Max the 2000-Year-Old Mouse, a series in which the title rodent visited famous folks from history. There were 104 five and a half-minute episodes released; the show was syndicated in the United States from 1970 to 1979, when local stations were pressured to provide instructional children's programs. The music used for this series later would appear in Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert's PBS series Sneak Previews.

The New York-born Krantz also worked on productions ranging from Tonight Show with Steve Allen on NBC to the critically praised 1975 film Cooley High, often described as a African-American version of American Graffiti. (Cooley High was adapted into the ABC sitcom What's Happening?)

After graduating from Columbia College, Krantz served in the United States Army.

Afterward, Krantz wrote for Arthur Godfrey and Milton Berle, winning a Peabody Award. He then joined NBC, serving as writer-producer of The Kate Smith Show. Soon, he became the executive producer of Allen's Tonight Show.

Krantz became head of creative development at Columbia Pictures Television, later serving as head of international marketing and production. While there, the company produced the series Dennis the Menace, Hazel, Bewitched and Winston Churchill -- The Valiant Years. Later, he produced such feature films as Which Way Is Up, starring Richard Pryor,

Returning to TV in the 1970s, he produced several mini-seres -- some adapted from his wife's best-selling novels. Among these were Scruples, Princess Daisy, Mistral's Daughter, Dazzle, I'll Take Manhattan and Till We Meet Again.

Krantz was executive producer of the Jack Reed series of TV-movies, which first aired between 1993 and 1997. After his retirement, he took up painting.

He became a mental health counselor and was appointed by California Governor Pete Wilson to the board of the California Council for Mental Health Planning. He was a board member of the 1736 Family Crisis Center and Planned Parenthood.

Krantz served as president of the Independent Producers Association. He was also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Television Academy, and was active in the Music Center in Los Angeles.

He met his wife Judith in 1953 during a Fourth of July weekend organized by his NBC employee, Barbara Walters. Judith ignored her date in favor of Steve. ("We flirted outrageously," Steve Krantz recalled in a 2000 interview.) They married in 1954.

Besides Judith, Steve Krantz is survived by sons Tony (executive producer of the Emmy-nominated 24 and Claymation series The PJs) and Nicholas; two grandchildren; and a sister.

Donations may be made to the United Jewish Fund.