An Academy Award winning American film director and producer responsible for some of Hollywood's most famous "message" movies.
Kramer produced Home of the Brave (1949), which was another success for the budding producer. In 1950, he produced The Men, which included Marlon Brando's screen debut.
Harry Cohn, the president of Columbia Pictures offered Kramer the chance to make movies under his studio. While Kramer accepted the job, he spent the rest of the year (1950) finishing his last independent production, the film High Noon, a Western drama directed by Fred Zinnemann. The movie was well received, winning four Oscars.
In October 1951, Kramer ended his partnership with Carl Foreman, who was asked to testify about his past involvement with the Communist Party. Kramer was still producing movies at Columbia, such as Death of a Salesman (1951), The Sniper (1952), The Member of the Wedding (1952), The Juggler (1953), The Wild One (1953) and The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953).
In 1953 the president of Columbia, Harry Cohn and Stanley Kramer agreed to terminate the five year contract Kramer had made to Columbia. However, for his last Columbia film, Kramer was determined to regain all of the investments Columbia had made in Kramer's previously unsuccessful films. The film, The Caine Mutiny, was an adaptation of the book written by Herman Wouk. The film's cast included multiple noted actors of the time, including Humphrey Bogart , Van Johnson , Fred MacMurray and Jose Ferrer. Cohn kept Kramer under tight limitations, such as a budget under two and half million dollars and a running time of two hours. The result was extremely successful. The eleven million dollars it generated made up for any of Kramer's lost profits previously.
After The Caine Mutiny, Kramer left Columbia and resumed his independent production, but this time he occupied the role of the director. During this time, Kramer reestablished himself through Not As a Stranger (1955) and The Pride and the Passion (1957). Fortunately for Kramer, he was able to avoid the Hollywood blacklist, which had affected so many other members of the film industry. However, Kramer was well known for his liberal views and his desire to produce and direct controversial films. He directed The Defiant Ones (1958), On the Beach (1959), Inherit the Wind (1960) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). All of the films were bold and dealt with uncomfortable and serious subjects.
In contrast to his previous films however, in 1963 Kramer produced and directed the multi-million dollar, all-star comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World . Four years later, in 1967, Kramer released Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. The film starred Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton and the final screen teaming of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. The film was a hit, earning eight Academy Award nominations.
In 1997 Kramer published his autobiography, entitled A Mad Mad Mad Mad World: A Life in Hollywood. Stanley Kramer died on February 19th, 2001 in Los Angeles after suffering from pneumonia.
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Originally Posted by Danny62
