Mel Brooks
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.
Acting (89 movies)
Spaceballs
1987
History of the World: Part I
1981
It's Alive: The True Story of Frankenstein
1994
The Silence of the Hams
1994
The Little Rascals
1994
Silent Movie
1976
The Muppet Movie
1979
Blazing Saddles
1974
Life Stinks
1991
To Be or Not to Be
1983
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
1993
The Twelve Chairs
1970
Dracula: Dead and Loving It
1995
High Anxiety
1977
Robots
2005
Excavating the 2000 Year Old Man
2012
Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch
1997
Screw Loose
1999
Hitler: The Comedy Years
2007
Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love
2023
Making History: Mel Brooks on Creating the World
2009
Musical Mel: Inventing The Inquisition
2009
Free to Be... a Family
1988
The Critic
1963
Mel Brooks Strikes Back!
2012
Sex, Lies and Video Violence
2000
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic
2013
Silent Laughter: The Reel Inspirations of 'Silent Movie'
2009
Free to Be… You and Me
1974
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
2023
Mel Brooks: Make a Noise
2013
Look Who's Talking Too
1990
Hotel Transylvania 2
2015
Mel Brooks: Live at the Geffen
2015
Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett Together Again
2011
Sid Caesar Collection: Buried Treasures - The Legend of Sid Caesar
2003
Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies
2017
Remembering Gene Wilder
2024
Mr. Peabody & Sherman
2014
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother
1975
Caesar's Writers
1996
Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story
2017
Young Frankenstein
1974
Sunset People
1984
The Last Laugh
2016
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
2022
Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You
2016
If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast
2017
Frank Sinatra: The Voice of the Century
1998
Ballerina
2016
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
2018
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie
2002
An Audience with Mel Brooks
1984
Ballerina
2016
It's Always About the Story: Conversations with Alan Ladd, Jr.
2016
Peeping Times
1978
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
2018
Annie: The Women in the Life of a Man
1970
The Producers
1968
The Great Buster: A Celebration
2018
The 2000 Year Old Man
1975
Mel Brooks: Unwrapped
2018
A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers
2009
Toy Story 4
2019
The Producers
2005
The Terrible Elephant Man Revealed
2001
Hitchcock and Mel: Spoofing the Master of Suspense
2009
Mickey's 50
1978
Recording the Producers: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks
2001
Forky Asks a Question: What Is Love?
2019
In the Beginning: The Caesar Years
2012
Life Stinks: Does Life Really Stink?
2003
Spaceballs: In Conversation - Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan
2005
Back in the Saddle
2001
The Making of 'The Producers'
2002
John Candy: Comic Spirit
2005
'Robin Hood: Men in Tights' – The Legend Had It Coming
1993
The Automat
2021
The Great Dictator: The Clown Turns Prophet
2011
The Muppets Go Hollywood
1979
Hollywood Singing & Dancing: A Musical History - 1980s, 1990s and 2000s
2009
Spaceballs: The Totally Warped Animated Adventures
2008
Blaze of Glory: Mel Brooks' Wild, Wild West
2014
Ruby's Studio: the Feelings Show
2010
From Darkness to Light
2025
Spaceballs: The Documentary
2005
John Candy: I Like Me
2025
The Hanging of Stuart Cornfeld
2025
Paddy Chayefsky: Collector of Words
2025