Mel Brooks

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Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks circa February 1984
Birth name Melvin Kaminsky
Born June 28, 1926 (age 80)
Brooklyn, New York, Flag of United States United States
Notable roles Gov. William J. Le Petomane in Blazing Saddles
Mel Funn in Silent Movie
Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke in High Anxiety
President Skroob/Yogurt in Spaceballs

Mel Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926) is an Academy Award-winning American actor, writer, director and producer best known as a creator of broad film farces and comedy parodies.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn, New York to Russian-Jewish parents Maximillian Kaminsky and Kate "Kittie" Brookman. Brooks's grandfather, Abraham Kaminsky, was a herring dealer who immigrated in 1893. He and his wife Bertha raised their ten children on Henry Street on the Lower East Side of New York City. Brooks's father, Max, was their second child.

When Brooks was two and a half years old, his father died of kidney disease aged 34. A year later, in 1930, Kittie Kaminsky and her sons Irving, Leonard, Bernard and Melvin were living at 365 S. 3rd St. in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY.

As a child, Mel was a small and sickly boy. He was bullied and picked on by his peers. By taking on the comically aggressive job of “Toomler” in various Catskills resorts, he overcame his childhood of bullying and name calling.[citation needed]

He went to school in New York. For elementary, he went to Public School 19 (Williamsburg). For middle school, he went to Francis Scott Key Jr. High (Williamsburg). Brooks graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School (New York).[citation needed]

In June 1944, Brooks enlisted in the Army. He had basic training at Virginia Military Institute and finished up at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. He was shipped off to war in February of 1945 where he initially served as forward observer for the artillery. Shortly thereafter, Brooks was reassigned to the 1104th Combat Engineers Group. Several months later, Germany had surrendered and Brooks was promoted to corporal. He continued to serve in Germany for another 4 months as a Noncom in Charge of Special Services (entertainment). Brooks topped off his service at Fort Dix in New Jersey.

[edit] Career

He started out in show business as a stand-up comic before becoming a comedy writer for television, working on Sid Cesars Your Show of Shows. In 1960, after suffering from a gout and the aftermath of the surgery done to relieve it which left him allegedly feeling like a 2000 year old man, with Carl Reiner, he created the persona of the 2000 Year Old Man, a collection of ad-libbed comedy routines made into a series of comedy records. With Buck Henry, he created the successful TV series Get Smart. In 1975, Brooks created When Things Were Rotten, a Robin Hood parody that lasted only 13 episodes; nearly 20 years later, Brooks mounted another Robin Hood parody with Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

He later moved into film, working as an actor, director, writer and producer. Despite horrible reviews and being a dud at the box office[citation needed] Brooks' first film The Producers (1968 film) was given an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and turned into one of the most popular Broadway shows in later years. Among his most popular films have been Young Frankenstein (co-written with Gene Wilder) and Blazing Saddles (co-written with Richard Pryor), both of which were released in 1974. Brooks developed a repertory company of sorts for his film work: performers with three or more Brooks films to their credit include Gene Wilder, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Ron Carey and Andréas Voutsinas. Dom Deluise has appeared in six of Brooks' 12 films; the only person with more appearances being Brooks himself.

In 1980 Brooks became interested in producing the film The Elephant Man (directed by David Lynch). Knowing that anyone seeing the poster with 'Mel Brooks presents The Elephant Man' would go along expecting a comedy, he set up the company Brooksfilms to produce the film. Brooksfilms has since produced a number of non-comedy films, including David Cronenberg's The Fly, Frances, and 84 Charing Cross Road, starring Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft, as well as comedies, including Richard Benjamin's My Favorite Year.

Brooks' most recent success has been a transfer of his film The Producers to the Broadway stage. Brooks also had a vocal role in the 2005 animated film Robots. He is currently working on an animated series sequel to his 1987 hit Spaceballs, a parody of Star Wars, expected to premiere in 2007.

Brooks is one of a select group who have received an Oscar, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy. Additionally, he won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award for Young Frankenstein. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted #50 of the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. Three of Brooks' films are on the American Film Institute's list of funniest American films: Blazing Saddles (#6), The Producers (#11), and Young Frankenstein (#13).

Brooks and wife Anne Bancroft worked together on two films: Silent Movie (1976) and his remake of To Be or Not to Be (1983). Years later, they appeared as themselves in the fourth season finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm, spoofing the finale of The Producers. It is reported that Bancroft encouraged Brooks to take The Producers to Broadway where it became an enormous success, as the show broke the Tony record with 12 wins, a record that had previously been held for 37 years by Hello, Dolly! at 10 wins. Such success has translated to a big screen version of the Broadway adaptation/remake with actors Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane reprising their stage roles, in addition to new cast members Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell. As of early April 2006, Brooks had begun composing the score to a Broadway musical adaptation of Young Frankenstein, which he says is "perhaps the best movie [he] ever made." No deadline has been set for the work's completion, but after it is finished Brooks will begin fundraising and production. [1]

[edit] Personal life

Brooks was married to Florence Baum from 1951 to 1961. Their marriage ended in divorce. Mel and Florence had three children, Stephanie, Nicky, and Eddie. More famously, he was married to the actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death from uterine cancer on June 6, 2005. They met on rehearsal for the Perry Como Variety Show in 1961 and married three years later, August 5th. They had one son, Maximillian, in 1972.

[edit] Works

[edit] As writer/director

[edit] Theater

Mel Brooks in the 2005 film of The Producers
Mel Brooks in the 2005 film of The Producers

[edit] Other works

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[edit] See also

[edit] External links and references


Films Directed by Mel Brooks
The Producers | The Twelve Chairs | Young Frankenstein | Blazing Saddles | Silent Movie | High Anxiety
History of the World, Part I | Spaceballs | Life Stinks | Robin Hood: Men in Tights | Dracula: Dead and Loving It
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