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.
Kass married his UCLA sweetheart, Anita, and started working for Liberty Records which was directly across from Hollywood High School.
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.
Collins provided for Kass's medical care when he was ill with terminal cancer, in addition to flying his sons from Switzerland to their father.