Stanley Kramer
Stanley Earl Kramer (September 29, 1913 – February 19, 2001) was an American film director and producer, responsible for making many of Hollywood's most famous "message films" (he called his movies heavy dramas) and a liberal movie icon.[1] As an independent producer and director, he brought attention to topical social issues that most studios avoided. Among the subjects covered in his films were racism (in The Defiant Ones and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner), nuclear war (in On the Beach), greed (in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World), creationism vs. evolution (in Inherit the Wind), and the causes and effects of fascism (in Judgment at Nuremberg). His other films included High Noon (1952, as producer), The Caine Mutiny (1954, as producer), and Ship of Fools (1965).
Stanley Kramer
September 29, 1913
February 19, 2001 (aged 87)
- Director
- producer
1933–1997
-
Anne Pearce Kramer(m. 1950; div. 1963)
4
Director Steven Spielberg described him as an "incredibly talented visionary" and "one of four great filmmakers, not just for the art and passion he put on screen, but for the impact he has made on the conscience of the world." Kramer was recognized for his fierce independence as a producer-director, with author Victor Navasky writing that "among the independents...none seemed more vocal, more liberal, more pugnacious than young Stanley Kramer." His friend Kevin Spacey, during his acceptance speech at the 2015 Golden Globes, honored Kramer's work, calling him "one of the great filmmakers of all time."[2][3]
Despite uneven critical reception, both then and now, Kramer's body of work has received many awards, including 16 Academy Awards and 80 nominations, and he was nominated nine times as either producer or director.[4] In 1961, he received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. In 1963, he was a member of the jury at the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival.[5] In 1998, he was awarded the first NAACP Vanguard Award in recognition of "the strong social themes that ran through his body of work". In 2002, the Stanley Kramer Award was created, to be awarded to recipients whose work "dramatically illustrates provocative social issues".[6]
Early life[edit]
Kramer was born in New York City. His parents were Jewish, and having separated when he was very young, he remembered little about his father.[7]: 102 His mother worked at a New York office of Paramount Pictures, during which time his grandparents took care of him at home.[8]: 23 His uncle, Earl Kramer, worked in distribution at Universal Pictures.
Kramer attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he graduated at age fifteen. He then enrolled in New York University, where he became a member of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity[9] and wrote a weekly column for the Medley newspaper. He graduated in 1933 at the age of nineteen with a degree in business administration. After developing a "zest for writing" with a newspaper, biographer Donald Spoto wrote, Kramer was offered a paid internship in the writing department of 20th Century Fox and moved to Hollywood.[8]: 23 Until receiving that writing job, he had planned to enroll in law school.[10]
Film career[edit]
Move to Hollywood[edit]
Over the following years, during the period of the Great Depression, Kramer took odd jobs in the film industry: He worked as a set furniture mover and film cutter at MGM, as writer and researcher for Columbia Pictures and Republic Pictures, and associate producer with Loew-Lewin productions. Those years as an apprentice writer and editor helped him acquire an "exceptional aptitude" in editing and develop the ability to understand the overall structure of the films he worked on. They enabled him to later compose and edit "in camera," as he shot scenes.[11]
He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943 during World War II, where he helped make training films with the Signal Corps in New York, along with other Hollywood filmmakers including Frank Capra and Anatole Litvak.[10] He left the army with the rank of first lieutenant.[12]
After the war, Kramer soon discovered that there were no available jobs in Hollywood in 1947, so he created an independent production company, Screen Plays Inc. He partnered with writer Herbie Baker, publicist George Glass and producer Carl Foreman, an army friend from the film unit. Foreman justified the production company by noting that the big studios had become "dinosaurs," which, being shocked by the onrush of television, "jettisoned virtually everything to survive." But they failed to develop cadres of younger creative talent in their wake.[4]
Producer[edit]
Kramer's new company was able to take advantage of unused production facilities by renting time, allowing him to create independent films for a fraction of the cost the larger studios had required, and he did so without studio control. Kramer also saw this as an opportunity to produce films dealing with subjects the studios previously avoided, especially those about controversial topics.
However, Kramer soon learned that financing such independent films was a major obstacle, as he was forced to approach banks or else take on private investors. He did both when necessary.[4] But with studios no longer involved, rival independent companies were created which all competed for those limited funds. According to Byman, "there were no fewer than ninety-six" other companies in competition during that period, and included some of Hollywood's biggest names: Frank Capra, John Ford, William Wyler, Howard Hawks, Leo McCarey, and George Stevens.[4] Kramer explained how he tried to differentiate his new company from the others, explaining he was less interested in the money than having the ability to make a statement through his films:
Retirement and death[edit]
In the 1980s, Kramer retired to Bellevue, Washington and wrote a column on movies for The Seattle Times from 1980 to 1996.[25] During this time, he hosted his own weekly movie show on then-independent television station KCPQ.
In 1986, he signed an agreement with Columbia Pictures to produce or direct two films, Chernobyl and Beirut, but the deal fell through when David Puttnam left Columbia.[26] Three years later, he agreed to make ERN starring Robert Guillaume but the project stalled. In 1991, he signed a deal with Trimark to direct and produce Bubble Man, a project he had been working on since 1972, but it was not made.[27]
In 1997, Kramer published his autobiography A Mad Mad Mad Mad World: A Life in Hollywood.
He died on February 19, 2001, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, aged 87, after contracting pneumonia. He was married three times and divorced twice. He was survived by his third wife, actress Karen Sharpe, and four children: Casey (1955–2023)[28] and Larry (with Anne Pearce), and Katharine and Jennifer (with Karen Sharpe).[29]