Mel Brooks

Melvin James Brooks (né Kaminsky; born June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, film director, songwriter and playwright. With a career spanning seven decades, he is known for a variety of successful farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of the few 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 and a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017. Brooks began his career as a writer for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, where he worked with Mel Tolkin, Neil Simon and Carl Reiner. Reiner and Brooks co-created the comedy sketch The 2000 Year Old Man and shared the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000. With Buck Henry, he created the spy spoof Get Smart. 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) and Spaceballs (1987). His musical adaptation of The Producers ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2007 and won 12 Tony Awards. It was adapted as a film in 2005. Through his company, Brooksfilms, he produced David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980), David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986) and David Jones's 84 Charing Cross Road (1987). With Anne Bancroft, he starred in To Be or Not To Be (1983), a remake of Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 film. Brooks and Bancroft were married from 1964 until her death in 2005; their son Max Brooks is an actor and author. Brooks wrote a memoir, All About Me! (2021). His career was covered in Judd Apatow's documentary Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! (2026). The American Film Institute included Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and The Producers on its AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list. In 2026, to celebrate his centenary, it moved Blazing Saddles to first place.