Mel Brooks

Acting · 2.7 popularity

Age

100

Movies

103

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

Biography

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.

Works

103 films

Toy Story 4

20197.5

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

20186.8

Hotel Transylvania 2

20156.8

Robots

20056.5

Spaceballs

19876.9

Ballerina

20167.2

The Little Rascals

19946.8

Mr. Peabody & Sherman

20146.7

Robin Hood: Men in Tights

19936.6

Young Frankenstein

19747.9

Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank

20226.6

Blazing Saddles

19747.2

John Candy: I Like Me

20257.9

The Muppet Movie

19797.2

The Producers

20056.2

Dracula: Dead and Loving It

19956.1

Spaceballs: The New One

2027

Life Stinks

19915.7

The Producers

19687.1

Look Who's Talking Too

19905.5

Silent Movie

19766.5

It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie

20026.0

The Land of Sometimes

20266.1

High Anxiety

19776.4

The Silence of the Hams

19944.9

Grown Ups 3

2026

History of the World: Part I

19816.7

To Be or Not to Be

19836.7

Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic

20237.0

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

20186.9

The Great Buster: A Celebration

20187.2

Forky Asks a Question: What Is Love?

20196.4

The Last Laugh

20167.0

The Twelve Chairs

19706.3

Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies

20175.4

An Audience with Mel Brooks

19847.0

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother

19756.0

Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic

20137.1

The Muppets Go Hollywood

19796.2

Mickey's 50

19789.0

Mel Brooks: Make a Noise

20138.2

'Robin Hood: Men in Tights' – The Legend Had It Coming

19936.4

The Hanging of Stuart Cornfeld

2025

From Darkness to Light

20256.7

Remembering Gene Wilder

20247.2

Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You

20167.1

Sex, Lies and Video Violence

20005.3

Untitled Lani Pixels Project

2026

Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love

20236.0

Mel Brooks: The Genius Entertainer

20176.0

Paddy Chayefsky: Collector of Words

20257.5

Spaceballs: The Documentary

2005

Enormous

2026

Excavating the 2000 Year Old Man

2012

John Candy: Comic Spirit

20056.0

Hitler: The Comedy Years

20075.0

Mel Brooks: Live at the Geffen

20156.8

Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett Together Again

20117.9

Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch

19977.2

In the Beginning: The Caesar Years

2012

Mel Brooks: Seriously... Well, Almost

20244.0

Silent Laughter: The Reel Inspirations of 'Silent Movie'

2009

The Sid Caesar Collection: Creating the Comedy

20007.0

Cutting Edge Comedians of the '60s & '70s

2007

Free to Be… You and Me

19746.8

Screw Loose

19994.1

The Terrible Elephant Man Revealed

20016.5

Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story

20176.8

It's Alive: The True Story of Frankenstein

19947.7

Hollywood Singing & Dancing: A Musical History - 1980s, 1990s and 2000s

2009

Annie: The Women in the Life of a Man

1970

The Great Dictator: The Clown Turns Prophet

20116.0

Mel Brooks: Unwrapped

20186.4

The Making of 'The Producers'

20027.9

Untitled Nathan Lane Documentary

2026

Sid Caesar Collection: Buried Treasures - The Legend of Sid Caesar

20037.0

Recording the Producers: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks

20019.2

If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast

20177.1

The Automat

20216.8

Flower of the Dawn

2025

Hitchcock and Mel: Spoofing the Master of Suspense

2009

Making History: Mel Brooks on Creating the World

2009

The Dick Cavett Show with Mel Brooks

2006

Free to Be... a Family

19888.8

The Sid Caesar Collection: Inside the Writer's Room

20008.0

Spaceballs: The Totally Warped Animated Adventures

2008

Peeping Times

19783.0

Frank Sinatra: The Voice of the Century

19987.7

Life Stinks: Does Life Really Stink?

20035.3

Musical Mel: Inventing The Inquisition

2009

The 2000 Year Old Man

19756.5

Mel Brooks Strikes Back!

20126.5

Back in the Saddle

20016.5

Spaceballs: In Conversation - Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan

20056.0

Blaze of Glory: Mel Brooks' Wild, Wild West

20141.0

A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers

20096.7

The Critic

19636.6

Ruby's Studio: the Feelings Show

2010

Caesar's Writers

19969.0

It's Always About the Story: Conversations with Alan Ladd, Jr.

20165.5

Mickey's Audition

19924.0

Funny Men in Tights: Three Generations of Comedy

2026

Sunset People

19848.0