Inspector Cramer
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Inspector Fergus Cramer of the New York Police Department is Nero Wolfe's main foil in the Nero Wolfe mystery series by Rex Stout. Though he hates Wolfe's attitude, snobbishness, and all-around love of showing off, he has a good bit of respect for the detective's ability to solve mysteries. He is also grateful to Wolfe for saving his job in The Silent Speaker (1946). Cramer's ever-present assistant is Sergeant Purley Stebbins.
Cramer is a simple man who shares few, if any, of Wolfe's tastes; in the story Black Orchids, for example, when he sees the orchid that Wolfe went to such trouble to procure, he says something to the effect that it's "pretty, but drab," and that he prefers geraniums. Cramer is married; his wife sometimes answers the phone at their apartment, but she is never developed further in the Stout stories. They have one son, who fought in the European theater of World War II.
Cramer is the protagonist of one novel, 1939's Red Threads. The novel shows him as being honest and hard-working, but hardly a genius, even without Nero Wolfe to irritate him. However, these qualities, combined with the efforts of another character are combined to solve the crime.
Cramer's full name is only ever mentioned once, in 1940's Where There's A Will. However, his initials are later given as "L.T.C." in 1946's The Silent Speaker (due to Rex Stout simply forgetting that he'd given Cramer a real first name in the earlier novel), leading to Robert Goldsborough giving him the full name of Lionel T. Cramer in his own series of Nero Wolve novels. This name is generally not accepted by Nero Wolfe fans.[1]
Inspector Cramer was portrayed in the 1981 NBC Nero Wolfe series by Allan Miller and in the 1979 TV movie by Biff McGuire.
In the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001-2002), the role of Inspector Cramer is played by Bill Smitrovich. Archie hears him called Fergus in the episode "The Silent Speaker," when he makes the brief acquaintance of Mrs. Cramer.
