Jackie Vernon, Voice of Frosty the Snowman, Almost Passed on the Iconic Role, but Said ‘All the Other Fat Guys Were Out of Town’

Jackie Vernon, the voice behind the titular character in Frosty the Snowman, “didn’t want to do” the classic film at first.

On a recent episode of Nostalgia Tonight with Joe Sibilia, the lasting legacy of Vernon, who died in 1987, was thrust back into the spotlight. Between resurfaced interviews and insight from Vernon’s family, fans of the 1969 Christmas classic got insight into the late comedian’s thought process behind accepting the role.

Vernon’s son, David Vernon, told host Sibilia that his father approached the role of Frosty very casually, and admitted his dad believed “it was a little beneath him.”

“It wasn’t a lot of money, but it also wasn’t a lot of work. He didn’t have a lot of confidence in it. I think somebody else had dropped out, and he had the time to do it,” David explained. “He didn’t really prep much for it. He didn’t think about it. He barely told us about it.”

When asked how he landed the role and why he took it, David confirmed that his father once joked it was because “all the other fat guys were out of town.”

“He had no illusions that they had designed or written the part for him,” David added. “And again, he thought it was just gonna be a little something that aired one year and then totally disappeared and would be scratched off of his resume.”

Of course, the complete opposite happened: the short film has aired every year around the Christmas season since its initial debut over 50 years ago, per TVLine, and continues to be a beloved classic.

David recalled his family being part of the millions of Americans watching Frosty the Snowman as it debuted for the first time on Dec. 7, 1969.

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Yet David said his family wasn’t particularly impressed by the movie, as the kids felt they were a little too old for a “young kid show.” That was, however, until the “shocking” end yanked at their heartstrings.

“It freaked us out, actually,” David said. “My younger sister had thought, ‘What, Daddy’s melting? He’s dying?’ “

“And it was kind of pandemonium. She started crying, and she was really upset, and I was kind of confused, and my mom, she was like, ‘Your dad’s okay, he’s not dead. He is at the Playboy Club in Chicago.’ ”