Brooks, Mel, 1926-
Name Entries
person
Brooks, Mel, 1926-
Name Components
Surname :
Brooks
Forename :
Mel
Date :
1926-
eng
Latn
authorizedForm
rda
ブルックス, メル, 1926-
Name Components
Surname :
ブルックス
Forename :
メル
Date :
1926-
jpn
Jpan
alternativeForm
rda
Brooks, Melvin, 1926-
Name Components
Surname :
Brooks
Forename :
Melvin
Date :
1926-
eng
Latn
alternativeForm
rda
Kaminsky, Melvin James, 1926-
Name Components
Surname :
Kaminsky
Forename :
Melvin James
Date :
1926-
eng
Latn
alternativeForm
rda
Kaminsky, Melvin, 1926-
Name Components
Surname :
Kaminsky
Forename :
Melvin
Date :
1926-
Genders
Male
Exist Dates
Biographical History
Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker and composer. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a creator of broad farces and parodies widely considered to be among the best film comedies ever made. He began his career as a comic and a writer for Sid Caesar's variety show Your Show of Shows (1950–1954) alongside Woody Allen, Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart. With Carl Reiner, he created the comic character The 2000 Year Old Man. He wrote, with Buck Henry, the hit television comedy series Get Smart, which ran from 1965 to 1970.
In middle age, Brooks became one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s, with many of his films being among the top 10 moneymakers of the year they were released. His best-known films include The Producers (1967), The Twelve Chairs (1970), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Silent Movie (1976), High Anxiety (1977), History of the World, Part I (1981), Spaceballs (1987), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). A musical adaptation of his first film, The Producers, ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2007 and was remade into a musical film in 2005.
In 2001, having previously won an Emmy, a Grammy and an Oscar, he joined a small list of EGOT winners with his Tony Award wins for The Producers. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the 41st AFI Life Achievement Award in June 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in March 2015, a National Medal of Arts in September 2016, and a BAFTA Fellowship in February 2017. Three of his films ranked in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 comedy films of the past 100 years (1900–2000), all of which ranked in the top 15 of the list: Blazing Saddles at number 6, The Producers at number 11, and Young Frankenstein at number 13.
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, Brooks published a memoir, All About Me!
eng
Latn
External Related CPF
https://viaf.org/viaf/84968687
https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79060094
https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n79060094
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q104266
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000316
Other Entity IDs (Same As)
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Languages Used
eng
Latn
Subjects
Theater
Acting
Comedy
Comedy films
Frankenstein, Victor (Fictitious character)
Monsters
Motion picture authorship
Motion picture plays
Motion pictures
Musical theater
Popular music
Television authorship
Nationalities
Americans
Activities
Occupations
Actors
Comedians
Composers
Directors
Lyricists
Motion picture producers and directors
Producers
Screenwriters
Songwriters
Television writers
Legal Statuses
Places
Brooklyn
AssociatedPlace
Birth
Convention Declarations
<conventionDeclaration><citation>VIAF</citation></conventionDeclaration>