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Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks

Acting · Writing · Production · Crew

Born June 28, 1926, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

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.

Filmography

Appearances as themselves (84)
  • Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! — Self
  • 2025From Darkness to Light — Self (archive footage)
  • 2025Paddy Chayefsky: Collector of Words — Self
  • 2024Mel Brooks: Seriously... Well, Almost — Self
  • 2024Remembering Gene Wilder — Self
  • 2023Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic — Self
  • 2023Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love — Self - Announcer (voice)
  • 2018Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story — Self
  • 2018Mel Brooks: Unwrapped — Self
  • Somebody Feed Phil — Self
  • 2018The Great Buster: A Celebration — Self
  • 2017Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story — Self
  • 2017If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast — Self
  • 2017Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies — Self
  • 2017Mel Brooks: The Genius Entertainer — Himself
  • 2016It's Always About the Story: Conversations with Alan Ladd, Jr. — Himself
  • 2016Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You — Self
  • 2016The Last Laugh — Self
  • To Tell the Truth — Self - Panelist
  • 2014Blaze of Glory: Mel Brooks' Wild, Wild West — Self (archive footage)
  • 2013Mel Brooks: Make a Noise — Self
  • 2013Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic — Self
  • Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee — Self
  • 2012Excavating the 2000 Year Old Man — Self
  • 2012In the Beginning: The Caesar Years — Self
  • Inside Comedy — Self
  • 2012Mel Brooks Strikes Back! — Self
  • 2011Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett Together Again — Self
  • 2011The Great Dictator: The Clown Turns Prophet — Self (archive footage)
  • 2009A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers — Self
  • 2009Hitchcock and Mel: Spoofing the Master of Suspense — Self
  • 2009Hollywood Singing & Dancing: A Musical History - 1980s, 1990s and 2000s — Self (archive)
  • 2009Making History: Mel Brooks on Creating the World — Self
  • 2009Musical Mel: Inventing The Inquisition — Self
  • 2009Silent Laughter: The Reel Inspirations of 'Silent Movie' — Self
  • 2007Cutting Edge Comedians of the '60s & '70s — Self (archive footage)
  • 2006The Dick Cavett Show with Mel Brooks — Self
  • 2005John Candy: Comic Spirit — Self
  • 2005Spaceballs: In Conversation - Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan — Self
  • 2005Spaceballs: The Documentary — Self
  • Broadway: The American Musical — Self
  • Parkinson — Self - Guest
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live! — Self - Guest
  • 2003Life Stinks: Does Life Really Stink? — Self
  • Real Time with Bill Maher — Self
  • 2003Sid Caesar Collection: Buried Treasures - The Legend of Sid Caesar — Himself
  • 2002The Making of 'The Producers' — Self
  • 2001Back in the Saddle — Self
  • 2001Recording the Producers: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks — Self / Host
  • 2001The Terrible Elephant Man Revealed — Self
  • 2000The Sid Caesar Collection: Creating the Comedy — Himself
  • 2000The Sid Caesar Collection: Inside the Writer's Room — Himself
  • 1998Frank Sinatra: The Voice of the Century — Self (archive footage)
  • 1997Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch — Self
  • 1996Caesar's Writers — Self
  • The Frank Skinner Show — Self
  • 1994It's Alive: The True Story of Frankenstein — Self
  • 1993'Robin Hood: Men in Tights' – The Legend Had It Coming — Self
  • Live & Kicking — Self
  • 1988Free to Be... a Family — Self
  • 1984Sunset People — Self
  • Champs-Elysées — Self
  • Wogan — Self
  • 1979The Muppets Go Hollywood — Self (uncredited)
  • An Audience with... — Self
  • Ciné regards — Self
  • 1978Mickey's 50 — Self
  • Please Turn the Page — Self
  • Film '72 — Self
  • Great Performances — Self
  • Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In — Self (uncredited)
  • The Dick Cavett Show — Self - Guest
  • The Hollywood Palace — Self
  • The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson — Self
  • The Mike Douglas Show — Self
  • The New Steve Allen Show — Self - 2000 Year Old Man
  • The David Susskind Show — Self
  • The Grammys — Self
  • Tony Awards — Self - Winner
  • The Wonderful World of Disney — Self
  • The Oscars — Self
  • Golden Globe Awards — Self - Nominee
  • Funny Men in Tights: Three Generations of Comedy — Self
  • Untitled Nathan Lane Documentary — Self
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