Career
Cramer began his career in advertising, serving as a broadcast supervisor on Lever Brothers and General Foods programs at Ogilvy & Mather in New York City. In 1962, he became Director of Program Planning at American Broadcasting Company Television. In 1966, he became vice president of television program development at 20th Century Fox.
He later became executive vice president in charge of production for Paramount Television in 1968, in which role he was responsible for such television shows as Star Trek, The Odd Couple, The Brady Bunch, and Mission: Impossible.
Cramer left Paramount to form his own production company in 1971. One of the series his company produced was Wonder Woman.
Cramer joined Aaron Spelling"s production company in 1976. Cramer was an executive producer on the long-running 1980s series Dynasty, its spin-off series The Colbys, and the 1991 miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion.
Cramer produced 20 of the 22 miniseries adaptations of Danielle Steel"s novels.
The exceptions being Jewels (1992) and the first, Now and Forever (1983). Cramer provides audio commentary for the pilot episode of the Wonder Woman television series starring Lynda Carter (who joins him on the commentary) on the Region 1 Digital Video Disc for the first season. Cramer is one of America"s leading collectors of contemporary art
Works from his collections, including pieces by Roy Lichtenstein, Ellsworth Kelly, and Mark di Suvero, have been shown at some of the leading art museums in the United States, and have been auctioned at Sotheby"s and Christie"s (1997, 2012).
In May 1997, Cramer sold 22 contemporary sculptures at Christie"s in New York, for a total of $2.9 million, with proceeds of the sale going to the Douglas South. Cramer Foundation. In 2008, Cramer sold Manitoba-Crazy Nurse #2 by Richard Prince for $7.4 million.
In Los Angeles, Cramer started collecting Californian artists. He became one of the founders of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and was president of its board of trustees from 1990 to 1993.
At Multimedia over Coax Alliance alone, he spearheaded art auctions, donated major artworks and provided funds for a 1997 Ellsworth Kelly retrospective.
He ended a 13-year tenure at Multimedia over Coax Alliance in 1996, rotating off the board in accordance with a policy enacted in 1993. Cramer also established the Douglas South. Cramer Foundation with two buildings and five different exhibition spaces on his 420-acre ranch, called Louisiana Quinta Norte, in the Santa Ynez Valley, near Los Olivos. He resides in Roxbury, Connecticut.