Denver Rocky Mountain News

May 14, 1995

Written by BILL HUSTED

Quote: "COFFEEBREAK WITH STEPFANIE KRAMER

Stepfanie Kramer looks softer than the gun totin' character she played for six years on the NBC

series Hunter. As homicide detective Dee Dee McCall, she chased down bad guys every week.

These days, living a quiet life in Denver, she's chasing down her 6-month-old daughter.

Kramer was raised in Los Angeles, but came to Denver throughout her teens to visit family (her

cousins are the Robinsons of Robinson Dairy).

"When I was 7-years-old, my mother asked me what I wanted to be," Kramer says. "And right

away I said 'An actress and a singer.' She said, 'Great.'"

So Kramer acted and sang through high school, then at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

After graduation, she landed some guest spots on TV series, a sitcom, then the Hunter co-starring

role in '84. "For all intents and purposes, I grew up on that show," Kramer says, sipping a mocha

in the Newsstand Cafe, her black bangs tousled on her forehead. "I learned so much about

myself."

She learned enough to leave the series after six seasons. "There was nothing left for me to do. It

was killing my spirit."

However, Kramer remains grateful to the show for bringing her maturity, riches and fame.

Hunter, which stopped taping the year after she left, is phenomenally successful in syndication,

especially in Europe and Asia. In some countries, Kramer can't even leave her hotel without

getting mobbed. A few features and made-for-TV movies followed Hunter, but her biggest part

came when cousin Ellen Hahn asked Kramer to come to Colorado for the State Fair before

heading to Aspen. In Pueblo, she met Denver businessman/playboy Mark Richards - whom she

married nine months later. It wasn't love at first sight, she says, but rather "an immediate

recognition of who he was."

Richards and Kramer celebrate their third anniversary on May 24. They chose to live in Denver

because Richard's financial planning business is here. "And I don't have to be in L.A. or New

York," Kramer says. "I can live anywhere and do what I do."

Their daughter, Lily Claire Richards, is currently the center of their lives. "Don't get me started

about her. I'll start crying. She's the greatest production I've ever been involved in. Mark and I are

head over heels in love with her."

Kramer has just returned from Canada where she starred in Deceived By Trust, an NBC movie to

be shown this fall. She's looking at a number of future projects. First on the list: she'll be a

celebrity host for the black-tie opening gala at Elitch's on May 20. The party is a benefit for

Children's Diabetes and Starlight Foundation, an organization close to Kramer's heart that

brightens the lives of chronically ill children. (Tix are $250, call 863-8940.)

In the meantime, she's living the life of your average Denverite - except people recognize her, ask

for her autograph, and see her in re-runs nightly. "I'm used to it," she shrugs. "People are nice.

And I don't know life any other way."