Mel Brooks

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Melvin Brooks né Kaminsky born June 28 1926 is an American filmmaker comedian actor and composer He is known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies Brooks began his career as a comic and a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows He became well known as part of the comedy duo with Carl Reiner in the comedy skit The 2000 Year Old Man He also created 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 bestknown films include The Producers The Twelve Chairs Blazing Saddles Young Frankenstein Silent Movie High Anxiety History of the World Part I Spaceballs and Robin Hood Men in Tights A musical adaptation of his first film The Producers ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2007 In 2001 having previously won an Emmy a Grammy and an Oscar he joined a small list of EGOT winners with his Tony award for The Producers He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009 the Hollywood Walk of Fame 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 Institutes list of the top 100 comedy films of the past 100 years 19002000 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 Oscarwinning actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death in 2005