#16 - Stanley Kramer - 54/9/10

Notable films: The Defiant Ones (1958), Judgment at Nurenberg (1961), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Ship of Fools (1965), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

In a film career spanning almost 40 years, Stanley Kramer, known in the industry as "Hollywood's Conscience", produced and directed nearly three dozen movies that tackled important moral and timely issues. With 54 nominations and 9 Oscars, covering just 10 movies, Stanley Kramer is ranked #16 on the 'Oscar Director-y'.

Born on September 19, 1913, in New York City, Stanley Earl Kramer's early years were anything but easy. After his father abandoned the family, Stanley was raised by his mother and grandmother in a cold-water flat in Hell's Kitchen, a rough part of mid-town Manhattan. Taking part-time jobs while excelling at school, Stanley graduated high school at the age of 15. He entered New York University in the fall of 1929, and graduated when he was 19. With his mother being a clerical worker at Paramount Studios in New York, the film industry was in his system, and when he won a writing contest in 1933, he earned an internship at 20th-Century Fox, in Hollywood. He worked as a production assistant, and also continued writing, working on several screenplays. He was a skilled carpenter, and he landed a job at MGM, where he built sets. He also learned film editing, as he built up his knowledge of the industry. He earned his first screen credit, as Associate Producer, in 1942. The film was A Moon and Sixpence. Later that year, Kramer was drafted into the Armed Forces, and assigned to the U. S. Signal Corps. He was stationed stateside, and commissioned to direct training films, and "industrials", gaining valuable filmmaking experience behind the camera. After returning to Hollywood at war's end, he realized the industry was flooded with veterans, all seeking studio work. Kramer decided his future lay in film production, and raised enough money to open his own independent film production company, producing So This is New York, in 1948. It was not a financial success, but his next feature, 1949's Champion, gave Stanley Kramer Productions a major boost, earning 6 Oscar nominations. From 1949 to 1954, Kramer produced films that would earn more than 30 Oscar nominations, including Home of the Brave, The Men (Marlon Brando's screen debut), Cyrano de Bergerac, The Member of the Wedding, High Noon, The Wild One and The Caine Mutiny. Home of the Brave, in 1949, dealt with ethnic bias in the military, a timely topic, and the lasting effects of war on the men who fought it was explored in 1950's The Men. High Noon (1952), examined one man standing up for his beliefs, in the face of overwhelming odds. The Wild One, in 1953, depicted social rejects returning to attack those who denied them ("What are you rebelling against, Johnny?" "Whatdya got?").

In 1955, Kramer stepped behind a camera to direct Not As a Stranger, which earned an Oscar nomination for its Sound Recording. In 1958, he directed the inter-racial prison drama, The Defiant Ones. The film garnered 9 nominations, including acting nods for Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier (Best Actor), Theodore Bikel (Supp. Actor) and Cara Williams (Supp. Actress). These were the first of 14 performers nominated for Kramer-directed films. Two of them would win the Oscar: Maximillian Schell (Best Actor in Judgment at Nurenberg) and Katharine Hepburn (Best Actress in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner). Kramer also received the first of his three Best Director nominations (Judgment at Nurenberg and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner were the other). Here is a list of Kramer's nominated films, with the number of nominations and Oscars won:

Not As a Stranger (1955) 1/-
The Defiant Ones (1958) 9/2
On the Beach (1959) 2/-
Inherit the Wind (1960) 4/-
Judgment at Nurenberg (1961) 11/2
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) 6/1
Ship of Fools (1965) 8/2
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) 10/2
The Secret of Santa Vittorio (1969) 2/-
Bless the Beasts and Children (1971) 1/-

Stanley Kramer's films broached strong 'moralistic' topics, including On the Beach, which dealt with nuclear war, Inherit the Wind, about the famed evolution-themed 'Monkey Trials', Judgment at Nurenberg, concerning the Nazi war criminals, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, which delved into inter-racial marriage. His subject matter was often controversial, and audiences usually had plenty to talk about after viewing a Stanley Kramer production.

Kramer retired from filmmaking at the end of the '70's. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Producers Guild of America in 1991, and a special NAACP honor in 1998, acknowledging his effort to highlight and counteract racism in film.

Some of Stanley Kramer's films that did not receive Oscar consideration: The Pride and the Passion, R.P.M., Oklahoma Crude, The Domino Principle and The Runner Stumbles.

Stanley Kramer died on February 19, 2001, of pneumonia, in Los Angeles, California. He was 87 years old.