Career
Originally from Vienna, Kramreither was a stage actor in Austria and Germany before moving to Canada in 1954. In Canada, he had television acting roles in series such as Wojeck, Quentin Durgens, Member of Parliament, R.C.M.P., Adventures in Rainbow Country and Seaway, and films such as Change of Mind, Silent Friends and Babysitters, before launching his own production company, Brightstar Films, in 1972. To make money for the firm, however, he also agreed to make several low-budget commercial horror films, which quickly came to define his studio"s reputation and eclipse his original ambitions.
In 1983, he produced, directed and cowrote the comedy film All in Good Taste, a deliberate parody of the gap between his own goals as a producer and the low-budget mass market compromises that he was forced to make.
The film would also later become noted as one of the first-ever film roles for comedic actor Jim Carrey. When Don Haig approached him for assistance in raising funds for Dancing in the Dark, he accepted the opportunity to move back into more serious filmmaking.
With its screening at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986, it became the first Kramreither-produced film to premiere at a major film festival. Other more ambitious films he produced around the same time included Flying, Confidential and Concrete Angels.
In the late 1980s, he was diagnosed with Parkinson"s disease.
He died on February 8, 1993 at his home in Richmond Hill.