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Voice actor died in November 1987
Carsen Holadayin New YorkWednesday 03 December 2025 21:27 GMTComments
CloseClumsy thief caught on CCTV stealing inflatable snowman from porch.mp4
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Scandalous details about the iconic actor who voiced Frosty the Snowman have been brought to light by his own son.
David Vernon, the son of comedian and actor Jackie Vernon, claimed on a recent radio show that the man known for bringing Frosty to life in the 1969 holiday classic harbored “at least three” secret families and was addicted to multiple drugs before his death in November 1987 at age 63.
While speaking Sunday on the Nostalgia Tonight with Joe Sibilia radio show, David remembered his late dad as a dedicated performer who was troubled by issues that he never revealed to the public during his time in the spotlight. David, one of three kids born to Jackie and his wife Hazel, recalled learning about his dad’s other life after answering the door to a stranger as a child at the Vernon family home in Los Angeles. He was then met with the alarming reality that his dad had other families before he settled down with Hazel.
“There was a woman there with a kid who was older than I was,” David claimed on the show. “He was probably in his late teens and a little rough around the edges looking. And the woman asked to speak to my dad and I said, you know, my dad's on the road and he's not home. Then, I remember she was very firm, she was like, 'Well then I want to speak to your mother then.’”
David said he was then ordered to go upstairs, but still overheard a heated conversation between the mystery woman and his mother. When she left, he asked his mom to tell him the truth.
open image in galleryJackie Vernon voiced Frosty the Snowman in the 1969 holiday special (Rankin/Bass)“And it finally kind of came out that before our family, my dad had been married at least three other times, which I was kind of shocked to find out,” David said.
He then learned that Jackie had other children from the previous marriages — and that he gave all of his sons the same name.
“From these marriages, he had sons, and he named them all Ralph after himself—after his original name, Ralph Verrone,” David shared. “But he also abandoned all these families, moved on.”
He went on to say that Hazel made a deal with Jackie that she would name their sons if he named their daughters, which is why David and his siblings were never called Ralph.
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Later in the interview, David claimed that his father struggled with his mental health and became reliant on pills.
“He went through some of his own demons with depression and addiction. His addiction was really kind of tranquilizers, Quaaludes, and Valium. It really took a toll on him and he had to work very hard to kind of break free from that depression. It was a hard struggle for him and it was hard for us, seeing him go through that,” David said.
open image in gallery‘Frosty the Snowman’ is broadcast on NBC and Freeform each year (Rankin/Bass)However, David said that one of Jackie’s bright spots at the end of his life was reflecting on his role in Frosty the Snowman and its sequels, Frosty’s Winter Wonderland in 1976 and Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July in 1979, following his decades as a stand-up comic and actor.
“One of the last Christmases that my dad was around, we all watched it together and he was so proud of it. He enjoyed it, he laughed at it. He was so happy he had done it and it became a very warm spot in his heart that I loved seeing that for him,” he explained.
David said that although Jackie toured as a comedian and worked with stars like Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra, he was honored to be remembered as a beloved holiday figure from the original half-hour special.
“He really embraced it. He accepted that that was something he was going to be remembered for and he loved it,” David said.
Frosty the Snowman is broadcast annually on NBC and Freeform.
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