Mel Brooks facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mel Brooks
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Brooks in early 2010
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Melvin James Kaminsky
June 28, 1926 New York City, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Virginia Military Institute |
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| Years active | 1949–present |
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Works
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Full list |
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| Children | 4, including Max |
| Relatives | Phyllis Italiano (sister-in-law) |
| Awards | Full list |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Army |
| Service years | 1944–1946 |
| Rank | Corporal |
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| War | World War II |
Melvin James Brooks (born June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and songwriter. He has worked in entertainment for over seventy years. He is famous for writing and directing many successful comedies and parodies.
Mel Brooks has won many awards. He is one of only 21 entertainers to win an EGOT. This means he has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010. In 2013, he received the AFI Life Achievement Award. He also received an Honorary Academy Award in 2024.
Brooks started his career as a comedian and writer for Sid Caesar's TV show Your Show of Shows (1950–1954). There, he worked with other famous writers like Neil Simon and Woody Allen. With Carl Reiner, he created the comedy act The 2000 Year Old Man. They released several comedy albums, starting in 1960. Brooks also co-created the spy comedy TV series Get Smart (1965–1970) with Buck Henry.
Brooks won an Oscar for his movie The Producers (1967). He then directed many popular comedy films. These include Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), and Spaceballs (1987). A musical version of The Producers opened on Broadway in 2001. It won Brooks three Tony Awards. He also wrote and produced the TV series History of the World, Part II (2023).
Brooks was married to actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death in 2005. Their son Max Brooks is an actor and author. In 2021, Mel Brooks published his memoir called All About Me!. Three of his films are on the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 comedy films. These are Blazing Saddles, The Producers, and Young Frankenstein.
Contents
Early Life and First Steps in Comedy
Melvin James Kaminsky was born on June 28, 1926, in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in Williamsburg. His father passed away when Mel was two years old.
When he was nine, Mel saw a Broadway show called Anything Goes. After that, he decided he wanted to work in show business. At 14, he started working as an entertainer, called a "tummler," at a hotel. He would make guests laugh with his funny actions. He also learned to play the drums and earned money as a musician. At 16, he got his first chance to perform as a comedian. He changed his name to Melvin Brooks, inspired by his mother's maiden name, Brookman.
Serving in World War II
In 1944, Brooks joined the United States Army. He was trained in electrical engineering. He served with the 78th Infantry Division as a forward artillery observer. He later transferred to the 1104th Engineer Combat Battalion. He helped clear buildings and defuse land mines as the Allies moved into Germany.
During the war, Brooks also joined the Special Services. He toured Army bases as a comic. He was honorably discharged from the Army in June 1946 as a corporal.
Building a Comedy Career
Early Work in Television
After the war, Brooks started working in resorts and nightclubs in the Catskill Mountains. He played drums and piano. When a comedian got sick, Brooks stepped in and started doing stand-up comedy. He also acted in plays and did radio work.
In 1949, his friend Sid Caesar hired him to write jokes for a TV show. In 1950, Caesar created Your Show of Shows. Brooks became a full-time writer for the show. He worked with other talented writers like Carl Reiner and Neil Simon. This writing team became very famous. The show ended in 1954.
Caesar then created Caesar's Hour (1954–1957). Brooks continued to write for this show, along with Woody Allen. Brooks once said that reading the book Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol changed his life and showed him what great comic writing could be.
The 2000 Year Old Man and Other Projects
Brooks and Carl Reiner became close friends. They started making up comedy routines for fun. One of these routines was about a "2000-year-old man." Reiner would interview Brooks, who pretended to be this very old man who had seen everything.
In 1960, Brooks and Reiner started performing this act on The Steve Allen Show. They released a comedy album called 2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks. It sold over a million copies. They made more albums and even an animated TV special. This act was a big source of income for Brooks when he faced career challenges.
Brooks also helped create the Broadway musical All American in 1962. He wrote the play, which was nominated for two Tony Awards. In 1963, he created the animated short film The Critic. Brooks provided the voice for a confused moviegoer. This film won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.
With writer Buck Henry, Brooks created the TV comedy show Get Smart. It was about a clumsy spy, Agent 86, played by Don Adams. Brooks wanted to make a "crazy, unreal comic-strip kind of thing." The show ran from 1965 to 1970 and was very popular. It won seven Primetime Emmy Awards.
Directing Hit Comedy Films
Brooks had an unusual idea for a musical comedy about Adolf Hitler. He worked on this idea for several years. Finally, he found producers and made his first feature film, The Producers (1968). The movie was a bold satire. It won Brooks an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The Producers became a big hit, especially among college students.
With the success of The Producers, Brooks directed his next film, The Twelve Chairs (1970). It was based on a Russian novel about three men searching for hidden diamonds. Brooks also made a cameo appearance in the film.
In 1974, Brooks directed Blazing Saddles. This film was a comedy that made fun of Western movies. It starred Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder. Despite some mixed reviews, it was a huge success with young audiences. It became one of the highest-grossing films of 1974. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards. In 2006, it was chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry because it was considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."
After Blazing Saddles, Brooks and Gene Wilder wrote Young Frankenstein. This film was a spoof of the old Frankenstein movies. It was filmed in 1974 and starred Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, and Madeline Kahn. Brooks's voice can be heard a few times in the movie. Young Frankenstein was also a big hit in 1974 and received two Academy Award nominations. Critics praised it highly.
In 1976, Brooks made Silent Movie, which was a silent comedy film. It was a tribute to silent comedians like Charlie Chaplin. Brooks starred in the film, and it featured cameos from famous actors like Paul Newman and Burt Reynolds. The only word spoken in the film was "Non!" by the mime Marcel Marceau.
Brooks's next film was High Anxiety (1977). This movie was a parody of Alfred Hitchcock's suspense films. Brooks wrote, produced, directed, and starred in it. He played a psychologist who suffers from a fear of heights.
Later Career and Broadway Success
By 1980, Mel Brooks was known as one of the most successful comedy directors. That year, he produced the dramatic film The Elephant Man, directed by David Lynch. To produce serious films without confusing audiences, Brooks started a company called Brooksfilms. This company produced other non-comedy films like The Fly (1986).
In 1981, Brooks directed History of the World Part I. This film was a funny look at human history from the Stone Age to the French Revolution. It was a modest financial success.
Brooks also produced and starred in a remake of the 1942 film To Be or Not to Be (1983). His wife, Anne Bancroft, also starred in it.
The second movie Brooks directed in the 1980s was Spaceballs (1987). This film was a parody of science fiction movies, especially Star Wars. It starred Bill Pullman, John Candy, and Rick Moranis.
In the 1990s, Brooks directed Life Stinks (1991), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995). Robin Hood: Men in Tights was a parody of the Robin Hood stories. It was praised for its humor and one-liners.
Broadway Musicals and Recent Work
In 2001, Brooks created a musical version of his film The Producers for Broadway. The musical was a huge success. It won a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. In 2005, a movie version of the Broadway musical was released.
Brooks also composed the music for a Broadway musical adaptation of Young Frankenstein. It opened on Broadway in 2007.
Brooks has also lent his voice to animated films. He voiced Bigweld in Robots (2005) and had a cameo as Albert Einstein in Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014). He voiced Dracula's father, Vlad, in Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018).
In 2021, at 95 years old, Brooks published his memoir called All About Me!. In 2021, it was announced that Brooks would write and produce History of the World, Part II, a TV series for Hulu. This series is a follow-up to his 1981 movie. He was nominated for an Emmy for his role as the narrator in the series.
In June 2025, it was announced that Spaceballs 2 was being produced. It is planned for release in 2027. Also in June 2025, it was announced that Brooks would be an executive producer for a TV project called Very Young Frankenstein.
Awards and Achievements
Mel Brooks is one of the few people to have won an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony, and a Grammy. This is known as an EGOT.
- He won his first Grammy in 1999 for his comedy album The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000. He won two more Grammys in 2002 for The Producers musical album and DVD.
- He won his first Emmy in 1967 for writing a Sid Caesar special. He won three more Emmys in 1997, 1998, and 1999 for his role as Uncle Phil on the show Mad About You.
- He won his Oscar in 1968 for Best Original Screenplay for The Producers.
- He won three Tony Awards in 2001 for The Producers musical. These were for Best Musical, Best Original Musical Score, and Best Book of a Musical.
Brooks also won a Hugo Award and Nebula Award for Young Frankenstein. In a 2005 poll, he was voted No. 50 of the top 50 comedy acts ever by other comedians. The American Film Institute (AFI) lists three of Brooks's films among its top 100 comedies: Blazing Saddles (#6), The Producers (#11), and Young Frankenstein (#13).
In December 2009, Brooks received a Kennedy Center Honors. He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in April 2010. In June 2013, the AFI gave Brooks its highest honor, the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 2014, Brooks was honored with a handprint and footprint ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre. His handprints include a six-fingered left hand, as he wore a fake finger for the event. In March 2015, he received a British Film Institute Fellowship.
Personal Life
Brooks first married Florence Baum in 1953. They had three children and divorced in 1962.
Brooks met actress Anne Bancroft in 1961. They married on August 5, 1964. They were together for 41 years until her death in 2005. Their son, Max Brooks, was born in 1972. Brooks has said that Bancroft was a big reason he developed The Producers and Young Frankenstein into musicals. He has remained single since she passed away.
Brooks is a big reader. He especially enjoys Russian classic literature. He has often spoken about his pride in his Jewish heritage and Jewish humor.
Discography
Comedy Albums
- 2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks (1960)
- 2001 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks (1961)
- Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks at the Cannes Film Festival (1962)
- 2000 and Thirteen with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks (1973)
- The Incomplete Works of Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks (1973)
- Excerpts from The Complete 2000 Year Old Man (1994)
- The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000 (1997)
Soundtracks
- The Producers (1968)
- High Anxiety – Original Soundtrack (1978)
- History of the World Part I (1981)
- To Be or Not to Be (1984)
- The Producers: Original Broadway Recording (2001)
See also
In Spanish: Mel Brooks para niños
