Local film fans flocked to the Billy Wilder Theater to check out “Champion: The Stanley Kramer Centennial.” The film series is being presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive on what would have been the late award-winning filmmaker’s centennial birthday.
Screenings included “So This is New York” and “Cyrano De Bergerac,” with Garry Marshall and Fred Willard putting in face time, along with “Champion” and “The Men,” with Richard Erdman and Sally Kellerman. Others included “Pressure Point” and “Bless The Beasts and Children,” hosted by Tippi Hedren, Bill Mumy and Marc Vahanian, as well as “High Noon,” with a special appearance by Karen Sharpe Kramer.
The film series kicked off with a star-studded opening night that included the screening of “Death of a Salesman,” based on Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. The restoration of the film was made possible thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation. Members of Stanley Kramer’s family mingled in the crowd, along with many of the stars who appeared in some of Kramer’s 35 films.
Attendees also included Ed Begley, Jr., Jennifer Ahn, Donna Anderson, Louis Gossett, Jr., Pete Hammond, Jan-Christopher Horak, Marsha Hunt and Larry King.
On opening night, Sidney Poitier presented Karen Sharpe Kramer with a tribute to his late friend and colleague. Karen Sharpe Kramer read Poitier’s comments to the audience.
“I welcome this opportunity to honor the life of a great friend and filmmaker,” Karen Sharpe Kramer read. “It was a profound experience for me to have had the privilege to work under the direction of such a remarkable talent. It allowed me the great opportunity to work with Spencer Tracey, Katharine Hepburn, Tony Curtis and many, many others. It was a fabulous experience that galvanized, for me, a career I had never dreamed possible.”
The experience was a life-changer for Poitier, who described Kramer as a remarkable human being in his written comments.
“He was an unusual person in so many ways, especially in regard to the motion picture industry,” Karen Sharpe Kramer read from Poitier’s writings. “In the many years I knew him, I will never forget the extraordinary gifts that personified the essence of Stanley Kramer—film director, film producer, visionary, family man, friend—all of which added up to his life having become a remarkable example of what the American film industry has made of itself—a competitor worldwide.”