Richard Earl Cramer (1889-1960) became an actor after graduating from university, working steadily in provincial theatres and in New York, where he made a few Broadway appearances.
Cramer began working in films at the end of the silent era, getting his first feature credit for Kid Gloves (1929), a Warner Bros talking picture.
Cramer’s physical appearances led to him playing villains in many low-budget westerns. He also portrayed many police officers, including in Josef von Sternberg’s An American Tragedy (1931), where he was uncredited.
Cramer also made many comedy shorts, including for Hal Roach, where he supported Laurel and Hardy. Perhaps his most memorable appearance was as the seething (and quite terrifying) judge in Scram! (1932). He can also be seen as Constable Posthlewhistle in W C Fields’s The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933).
All told, Cramer made over 140 feature films and more than 100 shorts, only one fof which was an MGM musical, Hollywood Party.
