Bass took control of the family business in 1968. His investments include oil and gas. Along with his father and two of his brothers, he was the largest shareholder in
The Walt Disney Company from 1984 until after the stock market crash in 2001. Bass was forced to sell his Disney holdings as a result of a
margin call. He turned the $50-million family company he inherited into a $14-billion investment group. He started to unload his Disney shares four days after September 11. 135 million shares were sold, most of them under market value, making the Disney share drop 8.9%. This quick bulk sale was a Wall Street surprise. Some speculated that Bass owed money as a result of a margin call. Others speculated that the Disney deal slowly fell out of Bass' control after his main adviser Richard Rainwater had left in 1986. No official reason was communicated. In 2020, he was ranked No.359 in the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America. ==Philanthropy==