Daniel Schorr
American Journalist (1916-2010)
Mel Brooks is an acclaimed American actor, comedian, and filmmaker who has had a prolific career spanning over seven decades. He is known for his writing and directing of successful broad comedies and parodies, and is one of the few entertainers to have won an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards). Brooks has received numerous accolades throughout his illustrious career, including a Kennedy Center Honor, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, and the prestigious AFI Life Achievement Award.
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About the Mel Brooks
Melvin James Brooksis an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. 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 Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. 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 from 1950 to 1954. With Carl Reiner, he created the comedy sketch The 2000 Year Old Man, and together, they released several comedy albums, starting with 2000 Year Old Man in 1960. With Buck Henry, he created the hit television comedy series Get Smart, which starred Don Adams and ran from 1965 to 1970.
Brooks won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Producers (1967). He then rose to prominence becoming one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s with 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), 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 her death 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Mel Brooks’ full name is Melvin James Brooks (né Kaminsky), born on June 28, 1926.
Mel Brooks is one of only 21 entertainers to have won the EGOT, which includes an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. He has also received numerous other accolades, such as a Kennedy Center Honor, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, the AFI Life Achievement Award, a British Film Institute Fellowship, a National Medal of Arts, a BAFTA Fellowship, and the Honorary Academy Award.
Mel Brooks began his career as a comic and a writer for Sid Caesar’s variety show Your Show of Shows from 1950 to 1954. He also created the comedy sketch The 2000 Year Old Man with Carl Reiner, and together they released several comedy albums starting in 1960.
Mel Brooks rose to prominence as one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s with movies like The Twelve Chairs (1970), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Silent Movie (1976), and High Anxiety (1977). He later directed other hit films such as History of the World, Part I (1981), Spaceballs (1987), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995).
Mel Brooks’ career has spanned over seven decades, from his early work as a comic and writer to his success as a filmmaker and director. He is known for his variety of successful broad farces and parodies, and his work has been recognized with numerous accolades, including being one of only 21 entertainers to have won the EGOT.
Mel Brooks was married to actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death 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).
Three of Mel Brooks’ 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.
21 Quotes by Mel Brooks
- 1.
If presidents can’t do it to their wives, they do it to their country.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 2.
If you’re quiet, you’re not living. You’ve got to be noisy and colorful and lively.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 3.
I don’t believe in this business of being behind, better to be in front.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 4.
We want to get people laughing; we don’t want to offend anybody.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 5.
If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us tickets.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 6.
Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 7.
I only direct in self-defense.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 8.
Look, I don’t want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you’re alive you’ve got to flap your arms and legs, you’ve got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you’re not alive.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 9.
Humor is just another defense against the universe.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 10.
Everything we do in life is based on fear, especially love.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 11.
We rest our case on the production numbers.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 12.
Bad taste is simply saying the truth before it should be said.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 13.
Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 14.
If Shaw and Einstein couldn’t beat death, what chance have I got? Practically none.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 15.
You’re always a little disappointing in person because you can’t be the edited essence of yourself.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 16.
These men both publicly and privately have done so much for me. Without Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick I would be living in a little motel just around the corner here, trying to make ends meet.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 17.
Rhetoric does not get you anywhere, because Hitler and Mussolini are just as good at rhetoric. But if you can bring these people down with comedy, they stand no chance.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 18.
As long as the world is turning and spinning, we’re gonna be dizzy and we’re gonna make mistakes.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 19.
He who hesitates is poor.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 20.
Anybody can direct, but there are only eleven good writers.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)
- 21.
Life literally abounds in comedy if you just look around you.
Mel BrooksAmerican actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1926)