Mel Brooks facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mel Brooks
|
|
|---|---|
Brooks in 2010
|
|
| Born |
Melvin James Kaminsky
June 28, 1926 New York City, U.S.
|
| Alma mater | Virginia Military Institute |
| Occupation |
|
| Years active | 1949–present |
|
Works
|
Full list |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children | 4, including Max |
| Awards | Full list |
Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky on June 28, 1926) is a famous American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He has been working for over seventy years! He is best known for writing and directing many funny movies that make fun of other movies or stories, called parodies.
Mel Brooks is one of only 21 entertainers who have won an EGOT. This means he has won an Emmy Award (for TV), a Grammy Award (for music/audio), an Academy Award (for movies), and a Tony Award (for Broadway shows). He has also received many other important honors, like a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a special award from the American Film Institute.
He started his career writing jokes for TV shows like Your Show of Shows in the 1950s. With his friend Carl Reiner, he created a popular comedy act called The 2000 Year Old Man. He also helped create the funny spy TV show Get Smart.
Mel Brooks won an Oscar for his movie The Producers (1967). He became a very successful director in the 1970s with hit films like Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974). Later, he made movies like Spaceballs (1987) and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993).
His movie The Producers was turned into a huge Broadway musical in 2001, which won him three Tony Awards. He also worked on a new TV series called History of the World, Part II in 2023.
Mel Brooks was married to actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until she passed away in 2005. Their son, Max Brooks, is also a writer. In 2021, Mel Brooks wrote a book about his life called All About Me!.
| Top - 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
Early Life and Growing Up
Mel Brooks was born on June 28, 1926, in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York City. His birth name was Melvin James Kaminsky. He grew up in a busy part of Brooklyn called Williamsburg. His family was Jewish, and his father passed away when Mel was only two years old. Mel has said that some of his comedy comes from the anger he felt about losing his father so young.
When he was a child, Mel was small and often picked on by other kids. He lived in a "tenement," which is a type of apartment building where many families live close together. When he was nine, his uncle took him to see a Broadway show. After that, Mel knew he wanted to be in show business, not work in the clothing industry like many people in his neighborhood.
At 14, he started working as an entertainer at a hotel in the Catskill Mountains. There, he met Sid Caesar, who would later become a big name in comedy. Mel also learned to play the drums from a famous drummer named Buddy Rich. He even filled in as a comedian when he was 16! He later changed his last name to Brooks, inspired by his mother's maiden name, Brookman.
Serving in World War II
In 1944, when he was 18, Mel Brooks joined the United States Army during World War II. He was trained as an engineer. This meant he helped clear dangerous areas like those with booby-trapped buildings and land mines as the Allies moved into Germany. He was part of the Battle of the Bulge, a very important battle.
Mel Brooks also used his humor during the war. When he heard German soldiers singing over loudspeakers, he would sing back to them using a bullhorn. After the war ended in Europe, he joined the "Special Services." This group entertained soldiers at Army bases. He became a corporal and was in charge of entertainment in Wiesbaden, Germany. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 1946.
Comedy Career Begins
After the war, Mel Brooks decided to follow his dream of being an entertainer. He worked in resorts and nightclubs in the Catskill Mountains, first as a musician, then as a stand-up comedian. He was very good at making people laugh with jokes and impressions.
Soon, he started writing comedy for television. In 1949, his friend Sid Caesar hired him to write jokes for a TV show. In 1950, Sid Caesar created a very popular comedy show called Your Show of Shows. Mel Brooks was a writer for this show, along with other famous comedians like Carl Reiner and Neil Simon. This writing team became very influential in comedy. Many later shows and movies were inspired by their work on Your Show of Shows.
When Your Show of Shows ended in 1954, Sid Caesar started Caesar's Hour, and Mel Brooks continued to write for him. Mel Brooks has said that working with these talented writers helped him develop his own comedic mind.
The 2000 Year Old Man
Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner became close friends and often made up funny routines just for fun. One day, Carl Reiner asked Mel to pretend to be a "2000-year-old man." Mel Brooks instantly created a hilarious character who had seen everything in history. He joked about meeting famous people like Jesus Christ and having thousands of children.
At first, they only performed this act for friends. But it became so popular that they started performing it on TV shows like The Steve Allen Show. They even released comedy albums of their routines, which sold millions of copies! These albums helped Mel Brooks a lot, especially when he was having money troubles.
Early Film and TV Success
Mel Brooks also got involved in Broadway. He wrote a musical called All American in 1962. Then, in 1963, he created an animated short film called The Critic, where he provided the voice of a confused moviegoer. This short film won an Oscar!
With another comedy writer, Buck Henry, Mel Brooks created the TV show Get Smart. It was a funny spy show about a clumsy secret agent named Maxwell Smart, played by Don Adams. The show was very popular and won many Emmy Awards for comedy.
Mel Brooks then decided to make his first full-length movie, The Producers (1968). It was a very unusual comedy about two men who try to make a Broadway show so bad that it will fail, so they can keep the investors' money. The movie was a success and won Mel Brooks an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Becoming a Movie Star
After The Producers, Mel Brooks directed The Twelve Chairs (1970), which was filmed in Yugoslavia. It didn't do as well as his first movie.
But then, Mel Brooks made two huge hit movies in 1974: Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.
- Blazing Saddles was a hilarious parody of Western movies. It starred Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder. It was a big hit with young audiences and became one of the highest-grossing films of 1974.
- Young Frankenstein was a spoof of the old Frankenstein horror movies. It also starred Gene Wilder and was filmed in black and white, just like the original monster movies. It was also a huge success and received great reviews.
In 1976, Mel Brooks made a silent comedy film called Silent Movie. It was a tribute to old silent film stars like Charlie Chaplin. The only word spoken in the entire movie was "Non!" by the famous mime Marcel Marceau. It was a fun movie, though not as big a hit as his previous two.
His next film was High Anxiety (1977), which was a funny parody of movies by the famous director Alfred Hitchcock. Mel Brooks also starred in this movie, playing a psychologist who is afraid of heights.
Later Career and Broadway Hits
In the 1980s, Mel Brooks continued to make movies. He produced a serious drama called The Elephant Man (1980), which was a surprise to many people because he was known for comedies. He even started a company called Brooksfilms to produce non-comedy movies.
He then directed History of the World, Part I (1981), a funny look at different periods in human history. In 1987, he directed Spaceballs, a popular parody of science fiction movies, especially Star Wars.
In the 1990s, he directed Life Stinks (1991), which was a comedy but not a parody. He also made Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), another funny take on the Robin Hood story, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), a spoof of vampire movies.
Broadway Success
One of Mel Brooks' biggest achievements in the 2000s was turning his first movie, The Producers, into a Broadway musical in 2001. The musical was a huge success! It won an amazing 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, which was a record at the time. It was so popular that it was even made into a movie musical in 2005.
He also created a musical version of Young Frankenstein in 2007. Mel Brooks has also lent his voice to animated movies, like Robots (2005) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015), where he voiced Dracula's father, Vlad.
In 2021, Mel Brooks published a book about his life called All About Me!. He also worked on a new TV series called History of the World, Part II (2023), which continued the story from his 1981 movie.
Awards and Honors
As mentioned, Mel Brooks is one of the few people to win an EGOT – an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award.
- He won his first Grammy in 1999 for his comedy album The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000.
- He has won four Emmy Awards, including for his writing on a Sid Caesar special and for his guest role on the TV show Mad About You.
- His Oscar was for Best Original Screenplay for The Producers in 1968.
- He won three Tony Awards in 2001 for The Producers musical.
His films Blazing Saddles, The Producers, and Young Frankenstein are all on the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 comedy films.
In 2009, he received the Kennedy Center Honor, a very important award for artists. In 2010, he got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2013, the American Film Institute gave him its highest award, the AFI Life Achievement Award. He even has a unique handprint at the TCL Chinese Theatre with six fingers on one hand, because he wore a fake finger when he made the print!
Personal Life
Mel Brooks was first married to Florence Baum from 1953 to 1962, and they had three children.
He then married the famous actress Anne Bancroft in 1964. They were married for 41 years until she passed away in 2005. They had one son together, Max Brooks, who is now a well-known author. Mel Brooks has said that Anne Bancroft was a big reason he decided to turn his movies The Producers and Young Frankenstein into successful Broadway musicals. He has remained single since her death, saying that after being married to Anne Bancroft, no one else seemed as appealing.
Mel Brooks loves to read, especially Russian classic authors like Nikolai Gogol and Leo Tolstoy. He has often included references to his favorite books in his movies.
He is proud of his Jewish heritage and has often used Jewish humor in his work. He has also been involved in politics, endorsing Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election and Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
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
