When young Savely was only three years old, the elder Kramarov represented some defendants in a widely publicized Soviet secret police case.

[3] Seeking to follow in his father's footsteps with a career in law, Kramarov quickly found that door closed for the son of an enemy of the people.

[3] Kramarov did not attend formal acting school, at the State Theatre Art Institute,[3] until 1972, well after achieving film stardom.

At the end of his life, Kramarov was asked to identify his favorite films he made; he named My Friend, Kolka!, The Elusive Avengers, The Twelve Chairs, Gentlemen of Fortune, It Can't Be!, and Big School-Break.

He found his only outlet to continue acting was a theatre of refuseniks, where the passports of prospective audience members were checked on arrival at a performance.

[3] Not giving up hope, Kramarov next took up a campaign in Western news media to secure his coveted exit visa, going so far as to write to then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan, as from "one actor to another."

[2][3] Upon finally being allowed to leave on 31 October 1981,[2] Kramarov became persona non grata in the Soviet Union, like all celebrities considered traitors or enemies of the state.

[6] Recalling a newly Kramarov-less Soviet Union, Oleg Vidov, another Russian actor who emigrated after Kramarov, noted: "The government took all of his posters down from the walls.

Americans know him best, probably, for his role as a Soviet KGB handler in Paul Mazursky's Moscow on the Hudson, starring Robin Williams.

Kramarov returned to his motherland only once, in 1992, following the break-up of the Soviet Union, as the guest of honor at a Russian film festival.

Kramarov's consistently-played version of a stock "Crazy Ivan" character "provided a veneer of protection in a totalitarian society".