Mel Brooks, the legendary writer, director, producer and performer whose irreverent humor re-shaped American comedy on television, in movies and on Broadway, turns 100 Sunday.
One of only a handful of entertainers to achieve EGOT status by winning Academy, Emmy, Grammy and Tony awards, Brooks has spent decades creating some of the most enduring comedies in entertainment history, including “The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” “High Anxiety,” “Spaceballs” and “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.”
Despite his advanced age, Brooks has remained creatively active well into his 90s, with recent projects including a 2023 television sequel to his 1981 big-screen comedy “History of the World, Part I” for Hulu and a sequel to the 1987 “Star Wars” spoof “Spaceballs” that’s currently in the works.
Actor Josh Gad, who is working with Brooks on the film, posted a photo of a smiling Brooks and him on Friday.
“Getting to be with this Legend the week he turns 100 is truly the greatest gift in the world,” Gad wrote on Instagram.
“Spaceballs: The New One” is scheduled to be released next year.
Born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York, Brooks grew up during the Great Depression before serving as a U.S. Army combat engineer during World War II. After returning home, he worked as a musician and master of ceremonies at resorts in New York’s Catskills, where he developed the quick wit and comic timing that became his trademark.
It was also during that period he changed his surname from Kaminsky to Brooks to avoid confusion with jazz trumpeter Max Kaminsky.
Brooks’ breakthrough came in the early days of television when Sid Caesar hired him as a writer for “The Admiral Broadway Revue” and later “Your Show of Shows,” a landmark comedy series that became a launching pad for some of television’s greatest comedy talent.
Working with Caesar led to one of Brooks’ most enduring creative partnerships. Alongside Carl Reiner, he developed the “2000-Year Old Man,” an improvised comedy routine in which Brooks portrayed a man who had witnessed virtually every event in human history. The recordings became comedy classics, and Brooks and Reiner remained close friends until Reiner’s death in 2020.
In 1965, Brooks teamed with Buck Henry to create the television spy spoof “Get Smart,” which ran for five seasons and earned multiple Emmy Awards.
His filmmaking career began with “The Producers” in 1968, the story of two schemers who attempt to profit by staging what they believe will be Broadway’s biggest flop. The film was only a modest box office success during its initial release, but Brooks won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
After directing “The Twelve Chairs,” Brooks reached another level of success in 1974 with “Blazing Saddles,” a sharp satire of racism and the classic Hollywood western. Released the same year, “Young Frankenstein,” which Brooks co-wrote with Gene Wilder, became another critical and commercial hit.
Brooks continued his prolific run with “Silent Movie,” “High Anxiety,” “History of the World, Part I,” “Spaceballs,” “Life Stinks,” “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” and “Dracula: Dead and Loving It,” establishing himself as one of Hollywood’s most influential comedy filmmakers.
In 2001, Brooks found remarkable success on Broadway by adapting “The Producers” into a musical starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. The production became a sensation, winning a record 12 Tony Awards, including three for Brooks. He also received Grammy Awards for the cast recording.
Earlier this year, he announced plans to donate thousands of scripts, photographs and personal papers to the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York.
His work has earned numerous honors beyond competitive awards, including the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award in 2013 and the National Medal of Arts, presented by President Barack Obama in 2016.
Despite a career filled with accolades, Brooks has long insisted that the measure of a comedy is simple.
“I don’t care how beautiful the lighting is, how superlative the script is, how wonderful the performances are,” Brooks wrote in his 2021 autobiography, “All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business.” “If you’re making a comedy and the audience isn’t falling down, holding their bellies, screaming with laughter, you’ve probably got a failure. First laughter and then everything else.”
Brooks was married to actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death in 2005, a relationship widely regarded as one of Hollywood’s enduring love stories. In reflecting on his life, Brooks has often said his marriage to Bancroft ranks among his proudest accomplishments.
Now entering his second century, Brooks remains one of the defining figures in American entertainment, a writer and filmmaker whose willingness to parody everything from horror movies and westerns to dictators and history itself forever changed the landscape of comedy.