Melvin James Kaminsky (Photo ©Angela George) – this is his birth name – was born on June 28, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
The young Mel began to learn the art of comedy when he was just a child, as a kind of only defense against his schoolmates who were bigger than him. During World War II he served in the infantry and further developed his comedic skills with little shows for his fellow soldiers that became more and more complex shows.
After the war, he started performing in nightclubs, initially playing drums and piano. It was around that time that he took the name Mel Brooks. Over time, he also became a cabaret artist and started working for radio programs. In the late ’40s, he started working for television, first as a comedy writer.
In 1953, Mel Brooks married Florence Baum. Together the two of them had three children and the marriage lasted until 1962. In 1964, he married the actress Anne Bancroft with whom he had his son Max and their marriage lasted until her death.
Mel Brooks’ career as a writer continued with comedies, musicals, and television with many projects including the creation of the famous “Get Smart” TV show in 1965. In 1968 Mel Brooks made his cinema debut directing the movie “The Producers, of which he was also the screenwriter. The movie also established his first collaboration with Gene Wilder, who played one of the protagonists. Mel Brooks won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
After the commercial failure of the 1970 film “The Twelve Chairs”, Mel Brooks began a series of great parodies of movie genres or famous stories. In 1974 “Blazing Saddles” and especially “Young Frankenstein” were released.
Other Mel Brooks parodies arrived with “High Anxiety” in 1977, especially with “Spaceballs” in 1987, “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” in 1993, until “Dracula: Dead and Loving It” in 1995 with Leslie Nielsen, the last film directed by Mel Brooks.
Over the years, Mel Brooks was also involved in the direction, production, acting and / or writing of various other movies such as “Silent Movie” in 1976, “History of the World, Part I” in 1981, “To Be or Not to Be” in 1983 and “Life Stinks” in 1991.
In the early ’80’s Mel Brooks created his own production company to handle not only his plays as well as films of other genres. Among the movies produced, there are in fact some much more dramatic such as “The Elephant Man” by David Lynch and “The Fly” by David Cronenberg.
Mel Brooks had great success on stage as well with an adaptation of his movie “The Producers” on Broadway that won 12 Tony Awards. After this success, Mel Brooks produced a new movie adaptation of the story released in 2005.
Thanks to his many successes, Mel Brooks is among the few to have won the so-called EGOT, meaning the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards. His works continue to make new generations of viewers laugh after decades and his masterpieces have now become real cult works.
