Mel Brooks

United States • b. 1926-06-28

Biography

Melvin James Brooks (né Kaminsky; born June 28, 1926) is an American actor, filmmaker, comedian, songwriter and playwright. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 28 people to win the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and 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 an Honorary Academy Award in 2024. Brooks began his career as a writer for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows. 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". Brooks received the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000. With Buck Henry, he created the satirical spy series Get Smart (1965–1970). Brooks won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Producers (1967). After The Twelve Chairs (1970), he made a string of successful comedies: Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein (both 1974), Silent Movie (1976), High Anxiety (1977), History of the World, Part I (1981), Spaceballs (1987), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995). His musical adaptation of The Producers ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2007 and won 12 Tony Awards. The musical was adapted as a film in 2005. He wrote and produced the Hulu series History of the World, Part II (2023). Through his company, Brooksfilms, he produced David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980) and David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986). Brooks was married to actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death in 2005; their son Max Brooks is an actor and author. Brooks published the memoir All About Me! in 2021. The American Film Institute included Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and The

Bio from Wikipedia