Mel Brooks
Born June 28, 1926 (Age: 99)
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Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Biography
Melvin James Brooks (né Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and songwriter. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 21 entertainers to win the EGOT (which includes an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony). He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2024. Brooks began his career as a comic and a writer for Sid Caesar's variety show Your Show of Shows(1950–1954). There, he worked with Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart, and Carl Reiner. With Reiner, he co-created the comedy sketch The 2000 Year Old Man. He released several comedy albums, starting with 2000 Year Old Man in 1960. Brooks received five nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, finally winning in 1999. With Buck Henry, he created the hit satirical spy comedy series Get Smart (1965–1970) on NBC television. Brooks won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Producers (1967). He then rose to prominence by directing a string of successful comedy films such as The Twelve Chairs (1970), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Silent Movie (1976), and High Anxiety (1977). Later, Brooks made History of the World, Part I (1981), Spaceballs (1987), Life Stinks (1991), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995). A musical adaptation of his first film, The Producers, ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2007 and earned Brooks three Tony Awards. The project was remade into a musical film in 2005. He wrote and produced the Hulu series History of the World, Part II (2023). Brooks was married to actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until she died in 2005. Their son, Max Brooks, is an actor and author known for his novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006). In 2021, Mel Brooks published his memoir titled All About Me!. Three of his films are included on the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 comedy films of the past 100 years (1900–2000), all of which were ranked in the top 15: Blazing Saddles at number 6, The Producers at number 11, and Young Frankenstein at number 13.
Melvin James Brooks (né Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and songwriter. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 21 entertainers to win the EGOT (which includes an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony). He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2024.
Brooks began his career as a comic and a writer for Sid Caesar's variety show Your Show of Shows(1950–1954). There, he worked with Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart, and Carl Reiner. With Reiner, he co-created the comedy sketch The 2000 Year Old Man. He released several comedy albums, starting with 2000 Year Old Man in 1960. Brooks received five nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, finally winning in 1999. With Buck Henry, he created the hit satirical spy comedy series Get Smart (1965–1970) on NBC television.
Brooks won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Producers (1967). He then rose to prominence by directing a string of successful comedy films such as The Twelve Chairs (1970), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Silent Movie (1976), and High Anxiety (1977). Later, Brooks made History of the World, Part I (1981), Spaceballs (1987), Life Stinks (1991), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995). A musical adaptation of his first film, The Producers, ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2007 and earned Brooks three Tony Awards. The project was remade into a musical film in 2005. He wrote and produced the Hulu series History of the World, Part II (2023).
Brooks was married to actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until she died in 2005. Their son, Max Brooks, is an actor and author known for his novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006). In 2021, Mel Brooks published his memoir titled All About Me!. Three of his films are included on the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 comedy films of the past 100 years (1900–2000), all of which were ranked in the top 15: Blazing Saddles at number 6, The Producers at number 11, and Young Frankenstein at number 13.
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Filmography
Spaceballs 2
2027
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as President Skroob / Yogurt
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Age: 100
Remembering Gene Wilder
2024
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as Self
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Age: 97
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
2022
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as Shogun (voice)
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Age: 96
David Lynch: The Idea Dictates Everything
2021
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as Mel Brooks
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Age: 94
Toy Story 4
2019
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as Melephant Brooks (voice)
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Age: 92
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
2018
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as Vlad (voice)
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Age: 92
Mel Brooks: Unwrapped
2018
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as Self
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Age: 91
Ballerina
2016
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as Mustachioed Creep (voice)
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Age: 90
The Last Laugh
2016
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as Self
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Age: 89
Hotel Transylvania 2
2015
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as Vlad (voice)
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Age: 89
Mr. Peabody & Sherman
2014
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as Albert Einstein (voice)
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Age: 87
In the Beginning: The Caesar Years
2012
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as Self
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Age: 86
Hitchcock and Mel: Spoofing the Master of Suspense
2009
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as Self
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Age: 83
Musical Mel: Inventing The Inquisition
2009
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as Self
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Age: 83
Making History: Mel Brooks on Creating the World
2009
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as Self
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Age: 83
Silent Laughter: The Reel Inspirations of 'Silent Movie'
2009
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as Self
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Age: 83
Hollywood Singing & Dancing: A Musical History - 1980s, 1990s and 2000s
2009
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as Self (archive)
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Age: 83
The Dick Cavett Show with Mel Brooks
2006
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as Self
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Age: 80
The Producers
2005
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as Hilda the Pigeon / Tom the Cat (voice)
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Age: 79
Spaceballs: The Documentary
2005
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as Self
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Age: 78
No Image
Spaceballs: In Conversation - Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan
2005
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as Self
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Age: 78
No Image
John Candy: Comic Spirit
2005
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as Self
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Age: 78
Robots
2005
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as Bigweld (voice)
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Age: 78
The Making of 'The Producers'
2002
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as Self
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Age: 76
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie
2002
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as Joe Snow (voice)
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Age: 76
Sex, Lies and Video Violence
2000
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as Stressed old man
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Age: 73
Frank Sinatra: The Voice of the Century
1998
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as Self (archive footage)
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Age: 71
Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch
1997
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as Self
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Age: 71
Caesar's Writers
1996
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as Self
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Age: 70
Dracula: Dead and Loving It
1995
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as Prof. Abraham Van Helsing
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Age: 69
The Little Rascals
1994
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as Mr. Welling
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Age: 68
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
1993
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as Rabbi Tuckman
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Age: 67
'Robin Hood: Men in Tights' – The Legend Had It Coming
1993
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as Self
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Age: 67
Mickey's Audition
1992
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as Movie Director
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Age: 66
Life Stinks
1991
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as Goddard Bolt
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Age: 64
Look Who's Talking Too
1990
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as Mr. Toilet Man (voice)
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Age: 64
Free to Be... a Family
1988
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as Self
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Age: 62
Spaceballs
1987
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as President Skroob / Yogurt
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Age: 60
Sunset People
1984
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as Self
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Age: 57
To Be or Not to Be
1983
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as Dr. Frederick Bronski
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Age: 57
History of the World: Part I
1981
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as Moses / Comicus / Torquemada / Jacques / King Louis XVI
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Age: 54
The Muppet Movie
1979
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as Professor Max Krassman
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Age: 52
Mickey's 50
1978
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as Self
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Age: 52
Peeping Times
1978
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as Adolf Hitler
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Age: 51
High Anxiety
1977
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as Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke
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Age: 51
Silent Movie
1976
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as Mel Funn
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Age: 49
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother
1975
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as Lion victim (voice)
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Age: 49
Young Frankenstein
1974
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as Werewolf / Cat / Victor Frankenstein (voice) (uncredited)
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Age: 48
Free to Be… You and Me
1974
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as Baby Boy (voice)
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Age: 47
Blazing Saddles
1974
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as Governor William J. Le Petomane / Indian Chief
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Age: 47
The Twelve Chairs
1970
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as Tikon
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Age: 44
The Critic
1963
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as Narrator (voice)
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Age: 36