Mel Brooks: The Life Story Behind the Comedy Filmmaker

Mel Brooks made people laugh at the things they were not supposed to laugh at. He made a comedy about Nazis, a comedy about a Western town, a comedy about Frankenstein, and a comedy about space, and he did it by taking a genre, a Western, a horror film, a musical, and turning it upside down, until the audience could not stop laughing. He was born in Brooklyn in 1926, he grew up poor, he served in the Army, he worked in television, and he became, at ninety-nine, the oldest person to win an Academy Award, for a film he made when he was forty-one. His life is a story of a funny man who never stopped being funny, even when the world changed around him.

He started as a comedy writer for television, working on Your Show of Shows with Sid Caesar, one of the most famous comedy shows of the 1950s, and he learned his trade from the best writers in America. He made a record with Carl Reiner, The 2000 Year Old Man, in which he played a two-thousand-year-old man who answered questions about history, and the record became a hit. He wrote and directed The Producers in 1967, a film about two men who try to make a flop on purpose, and it won him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He followed it with Blazing Saddles in 1974, a Western that made fun of racism, and Young Frankenstein in the same year, a horror comedy that is now seen as one of the funniest films ever made.

Brooks is still alive, still working, still telling jokes, and still making people laugh, in his late nineties, with a career that has lasted for more than seventy years. He was married to the actress Anne Bancroft for forty-one years, until her death in 2005, and he has a son, Max Brooks, who is a writer. His story is not only about comedy. It is about a man who grew up poor in Brooklyn, who lost his father at two, and who used humour to survive, to succeed, and to make the world a funnier place, even when the world was not funny at all.

A Poor Boy in Brooklyn Who Lost His Father

Melvin Kaminsky, who later took the name Mel Brooks, was born on 28 June 1926 in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of four sons of Max Kaminsky, a process server, and Kate Brookman Kaminsky, who came from a family of Russian Jewish immigrants. His father died of kidney disease in 1928, when Mel was only two years old, leaving his mother to raise four boys on her own, in a small apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with little money, and with the help of relatives. The family was poor, and Mel grew up in a crowded tenement, sharing a bed with his brothers, and learning to be funny as a way of getting attention, and as a way of coping with a hard life.

He went to school in Brooklyn, and he was a funny child, always making jokes, always performing, and always getting into trouble for talking in class. He loved the movies, especially comedies, and he loved the radio, where he listened to comedians, and he dreamed of being a performer. He was small, he was skinny, and he was not good at sports, but he was good at making people laugh, and that became his talent, and his way of surviving in a tough neighbourhood. He later said that humour was his way of dealing with poverty, with loss, and with the fear of being poor, and that he learned early that if you can make people laugh, they will like you, and they will help you.

At fourteen, he got a job as a tummler, an entertainer who kept guests amused, at a resort in the Catskill Mountains, a place where Jewish families from New York went on holiday. He told jokes, he did impressions, and he learned how to work an audience, how to time a joke, and how to recover when a joke failed. It was a hard job, with long hours, and with audiences who were not always kind, but it taught him comedy, and it gave him his first taste of performing for a living. He also learned to play the drums, and he played in bands, and he began to think of himself as an entertainer, not only as a funny kid from Brooklyn.

He served in the United States Army during the Second World War, from 1944 to 1946, as a combat engineer, and he was sent to Europe, where he helped to clear land mines, and where he saw the horrors of war. He was nineteen, and he was in a war, and he used humour to cope, telling jokes to his fellow soldiers, and making them laugh, even in a terrible situation. He later said that the war taught him that humour is a way of surviving, and that even in the darkest times, a joke can help. He returned to Brooklyn after the war, and he began to work in show business, as a writer, as a performer, and as a man who was determined to make a living by making people laugh.

Your Show of Shows and the 2000 Year Old Man

After the war, Brooks worked as a stand-up comedian in clubs, and as a writer for radio and television, and in 1950 he was hired as a writer for Your Show of Shows, a live television variety show starring Sid Caesar, one of the most famous comedians of the time. The show was written by a team of young writers, including Neil Simon, Woody Allen, and Carl Reiner, and it was a training ground for the best comedy writers in America. Brooks learned to write sketches, to write jokes, and to work with other writers, and he became known as one of the funniest men in the room, a man who could come up with a joke for any situation, and who could make the other writers laugh, even when they were tired.

He also began to work with Carl Reiner, another writer on the show, and the two men created a comedy routine called The 2000 Year Old Man, in which Reiner interviewed Brooks, who played a two-thousand-year-old man, answering questions about history, about the past, and about life. The routine was improvised, with Reiner asking a question, and Brooks making up an answer on the spot, and it became a hit, first at parties, then on records, and then on television. The 2000 Year Old Man albums, released in the early 1960s, were bestsellers, and they made Brooks famous as a performer, not only as a writer. The routine showed his talent for improvisation, for voices, and for turning a simple question into a funny, wise answer.

He also worked as a writer for other television shows, and he wrote a play, and he tried to make a living in show business, but it was not easy, and he was often broke, living in a small apartment, and borrowing money from friends. He married Florence Baum in 1953, and they had three children, Stefanie, Nicky, and Eddie, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1962. He was a hard worker, and he was a funny man, but he was not yet famous, and he was not yet a film director. That would come in 1967, when he was forty-one, and when he wrote and directed his first film, The Producers, a film that would change his life, and the history of comedy, forever.

The Producers and an Oscar at Forty-One

The Producers, released in 1967, is a comedy about two men, Max Bialystock, a Broadway producer played by Zero Mostel, and Leo Bloom, an accountant played by Gene Wilder, who try to make a fortune by producing a flop, a musical called Springtime for Hitler, about Adolf Hitler, which they hope will fail, so that they can keep the money they raised from investors. The plan backfires, because the musical is a hit, not a flop, and the two men are in trouble. The film is a black comedy, it makes fun of Nazis, of Broadway, and of greed, and it was shocking at the time, because it made Hitler funny, which many people thought was wrong. Brooks believed that the best way to deal with Hitler was to laugh at him, to make him ridiculous, and to take away his power by making him a joke. That belief, that laughter is a weapon against evil, is at the heart of his work.

The Producers was not a commercial success at first, but it was praised by critics, and it won Brooks an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, his only competitive Oscar, at the age of forty-one. The film is now seen as a classic, and it was later turned into a successful Broadway musical in 2001, which won twelve Tony Awards, and which made Brooks famous again, in his seventies, as a Broadway composer. He wrote the music for the musical, with songs that are funny, catchy, and clever, and he proved that he could write a musical, as well as a film, and that his talent was not limited to one form.

He followed The Producers with The Twelve Chairs in 1970, a comedy based on a Russian novel, and with Blazing Saddles in 1974, a Western comedy that is now seen as one of the funniest films ever made. Blazing Saddles is about a Black sheriff, played by Cleavon Little, who is appointed to a racist Western town, and who, with the help of a drunk gunfighter played by Gene Wilder, outwits the villains. The film makes fun of racism, of Westerns, and of Hollywood, and it is full of jokes that would be considered shocking today, but that were, in 1974, a way of talking about racism by laughing at it. The film was a huge commercial success, and it made Brooks a major director, and it proved that a comedy could be both funny and political, and that laughter could be used to talk about serious things.

Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and the Peak Years

In 1974, the same year as Blazing Saddles, Brooks directed Young Frankenstein, a black-and-white comedy about Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, played by Gene Wilder, the grandson of the original Dr. Frankenstein, who inherits his grandfather’s castle in Transylvania, and who creates a monster, played by Peter Boyle. The film is a loving parody of the old Frankenstein films of the 1930s, with the same sets, the same costumes, and the same music, but with jokes that make the horror funny. It is a gentle film, compared to Blazing Saddles, and it is full of warmth, and of affection for the old movies that Brooks loved as a child. It was also a huge success, and it is now seen as one of the greatest comedies ever made, with lines that are still quoted today, and with performances that are still loved.

Brooks made many other films in the 1970s and 1980s, including Silent Movie in 1976, a comedy with no dialogue, except for one word, spoken by the mime Marcel Marceau; High Anxiety in 1977, a parody of Alfred Hitchcock films; History of the World, Part I in 1981, a comedy about history, from the Stone Age to the French Revolution; Spaceballs in 1987, a parody of Star Wars, with Rick Moranis as Dark Helmet, and Bill Pullman as Lone Starr; and Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993, a parody of Robin Hood films. Some of these films were successes, and some were not, but all of them show Brooks’s love of parody, his love of old movies, and his belief that any genre, from a Western to a horror film to a space opera, can be made funny, if you love it enough to make fun of it.

He also worked as an actor, appearing in his own films, and in other films, and on television, and he was known for his funny voice, his funny face, and his ability to make people laugh, even in a small role. He was married to Anne Bancroft, the actress who won an Academy Award for The Miracle Worker, from 1964 until her death in 2005, a marriage of forty-one years, which was one of the happiest in Hollywood. They had a son, Max Brooks, who became a writer, known for his book World War Z, about a zombie war, which was later made into a film. Brooks’s family life, with Anne, was a happy one, and he has said that she was the love of his life, and that her death was the hardest thing he has ever faced.

In 2001, The Producers became a Broadway musical, with music and lyrics by Brooks, and it won twelve Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and it made Brooks an EGOT winner, a person who has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, one of the few people in history to do so. He was in his seventies, and he was famous again, as a Broadway composer, and he enjoyed the success, and he enjoyed the fact that a film he had made in 1967 was still making people laugh, in a new form, more than thirty years later. He has continued to work, to write, and to perform, into his nineties, and he is still, at the age of ninety-nine, one of the funniest men in America.

Anne Bancroft, Max Brooks, and a Family of Artists

Brooks was married to Anne Bancroft for forty-one years, from 1964 to 2005, and their marriage was one of the most respected in Hollywood, because they were both talented, both funny, and both devoted to each other. Anne Bancroft was a serious actress, known for The Miracle Worker, for The Graduate, and for many other films, and she was also funny, and she understood Brooks’s humour, and she supported his work. They had a son, Max, in 1972, who grew up in a house full of comedy, and who became a writer, known for The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, books that are funny and serious at the same time, like his father’s films. Max has said that his father taught him to be funny, and to be serious, and to use humour to talk about difficult things, and that lesson is clear in his work.

Anne Bancroft died in 2005, at the age of seventy-three, from uterine cancer, and Brooks was devastated. He has said that he still talks to her, and that he still misses her every day, and that her death was the hardest thing he has faced, harder than poverty, harder than war, and harder than any failure in his career. That grief is a private part of his story, and it shows that even the funniest man in America can be sad, and that humour does not protect a person from loss. He has kept working since her death, and he has kept making people laugh, but he has also been open about his grief, and about how much he loved her, and that openness is part of why people love him.

The EGOT, the Musical, and a Very Long Career

Brooks is one of the few people in history to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, a combination known as an EGOT, and he won his Tony Awards for The Producers musical in 2001, when he was seventy-four. He won three Tony Awards that night, for Best Book, Best Original Score, and Best Musical, and he was the oldest person to win a Tony for a musical, and one of the oldest EGOT winners. He also won a Grammy for The 2000 Year Old Man, an Emmy for his work on television, and an Oscar for The Producers, and that combination, across film, television, music, and theatre, shows a talent that is not limited to one form, but that can work in any form, as long as it is funny.

His career has lasted for more than seventy years, from his days as a tummler in the Catskills, to Your Show of Shows, to The Producers, to Blazing Saddles, to The Producers musical, and to his work in his nineties, writing, performing, and making people laugh. He is now ninety-nine, and he is still working, still telling jokes, and still making people laugh, and he is a living link to the golden age of American comedy, to Sid Caesar, to Carl Reiner, and to the writers who shaped television. His longevity is a testament to his talent, to his work ethic, and to his belief that laughter is a way of surviving, and of living well, even in old age.

The Producers Musical and a Second Fame

In 2001, more than thirty years after the film, The Producers became a Broadway musical, with music and lyrics by Brooks, and it was a huge success, winning twelve Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Original Score. The musical starred Nathan Lane as Max Bialystock and Matthew Broderick as Leo Bloom, and it ran for more than two thousand performances on Broadway, and it toured the world, making Brooks famous again, in his seventies, as a Broadway composer. He wrote songs that are funny, catchy, and clever, including “Springtime for Hitler,” which is a show-stopping number, and “I Wanna Be a Producer,” which is a joyful song about ambition. The success of the musical proved that a film from 1967 could still make people laugh, in a new form, and that Brooks’s talent was not limited to film, but could work on stage, as well.

He followed The Producers musical with a musical version of Young Frankenstein in 2007, which was less successful, but which showed that he was still working, still writing, and still trying new things, in his eighties. He has also written a memoir, All About Me!, published in 2021, when he was ninety-five, in which he tells stories about his life, about his childhood in Brooklyn, about Your Show of Shows, and about his films, with the same humour that has defined his career. The book is funny, and it is also moving, especially when he talks about Anne Bancroft, and about his life after her death, and it is a fitting record of a life lived in comedy, for more than seventy years. He also appeared on television, in shows like Mad About You, where he played a character, and in films, where he took small roles, and he enjoyed acting, because it gave him a chance to be funny in a different way, without writing, without directing, and without carrying a whole film on his shoulders. He was a generous actor, who gave his best even in a small part, and who made other actors laugh, on set, and off, with jokes, and with stories about his long career. That generosity, on set, is part of why people loved working with him, and why his films feel like they were made by friends, having fun, together.

My Take:

I think Mel Brooks is the funniest man in this whole group, and I mean that in the simplest way: he makes me laugh, out loud, even when I am alone, reading about his films, or remembering a scene from Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein. That kind of laughter, the kind that comes from your belly, and that you cannot control, is a rare gift, and Brooks has it, and he has had it for seventy years. I admire him for that, because making people laugh is hard work, and making people laugh for seventy years is even harder, and he has done it, without ever becoming bitter, or cruel, or tired of being funny.

What I admire most is his belief that laughter is a weapon against evil. He made The Producers, a comedy about Hitler, because he believed that the best way to deal with Hitler was to laugh at him, to make him ridiculous, and to take away his power. That is a brave idea, and it is one that I think about a lot, because it suggests that humour is not only entertainment, but also a form of resistance, and that a joke can be a way of fighting back, when fighting with guns is not possible, or not enough. Brooks fought Hitler with a joke, and he won, in the sense that his film is still funny, and Hitler is still ridiculous, and that is a victory that lasts longer than a battle.

I also love the story of his childhood in Brooklyn, because it shows where his humour came from. He was poor, he lost his father at two, and he grew up in a crowded tenement, sharing a bed with his brothers, and he learned to be funny as a way of getting attention, and as a way of coping. That is a familiar story for many comedians, who learn to be funny because they need to be, not because they want to be, and Brooks is one of the best examples of it. He did not become funny because he had an easy life. He became funny because he had a hard life, and humour was his way of surviving it. I respect that, and I think it is a lesson for anyone who has had a hard childhood: humour can be a way of surviving, and of turning pain into something that makes other people laugh, and that is a generous act.

His work on Your Show of Shows is another part of his story that I admire, because it shows that he learned his trade from the best, and that he was part of a team of writers who shaped American comedy. He worked with Sid Caesar, with Carl Reiner, with Neil Simon, and with Woody Allen, and he learned to write sketches, to write jokes, and to work with other people, and that training made him a better writer, and a better director. I think about how important it is to learn from the best, and to be part of a team, and Brooks’s story reminds me that even the funniest man in America did not do it alone. He had teachers, he had friends, and he had a team, and that team made him better.

The 2000 Year Old Man is the routine I think about most, because it is so simple, and so clever. Carl Reiner asks a question, and Brooks, as a two-thousand-year-old man, makes up an answer on the spot, and the answer is funny, and wise, and surprising, all at once. That kind of improvisation, of making up a joke in the moment, is a rare skill, and Brooks had it in a way that few people have. I listen to those records and I laugh, even though I have heard them before, because the jokes feel fresh, as if they are being made up for the first time. That freshness is a sign of great comedy, and it is why those records are still listened to today, more than sixty years after they were made.

I have mixed feelings about Blazing Saddles, and I want to be honest about that. The film makes fun of racism, and it does so by using racist language, by showing racist characters, and by making jokes that would be considered shocking today. In 1974, that was a way of talking about racism, by laughing at racists, and by showing how stupid racism is. Today, some people find the film offensive, because it uses words that are hurtful, even if the intention is to mock racism. I understand both sides, and I think it is important to talk about it honestly. Brooks’s intention was good, and his film was brave for its time, but the language he used is painful, and it is fair for people today to feel uncomfortable with it. I think we can love a film and still talk about its problems, and Blazing Saddles is a film that deserves both love and honest discussion.

Young Frankenstein is the film I love most, because it is gentle, it is warm, and it is full of affection for the old horror films that Brooks loved as a child. It is a parody, but it is a loving parody, made by a man who loved the original films, and who wanted to make them funny, not to destroy them. I watch Young Frankenstein and I feel happy, because it is a film made by people who love movies, and who love each other, and who are having fun. Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, and the rest of the cast are clearly enjoying themselves, and that joy is contagious. I think that is the best kind of comedy: comedy made by people who love what they are making fun of, and who invite the audience to love it too.

I also think about Anne Bancroft, and about their forty-one-year marriage, because it shows a side of Brooks that is often missed. He was a funny man, but he was also a devoted husband, and he loved Anne deeply, and her death in 2005 was the hardest thing he faced. He has said that he still talks to her, and that he still misses her, and that openness about grief is moving, because it shows that even the funniest man can be sad, and that humour does not protect you from loss. I respect him for being open about his grief, and for continuing to work, and to make people laugh, even after losing the love of his life. That is a brave way to live, and it is one I admire.

I do not think every Brooks film is perfect, and I do not think his work is all equal. Some of his later films, like Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights, feel like they are repeating the same jokes, without finding a new idea, and some of his films feel dated, because the genres they parody are no longer popular. I say that because I think it is important to be honest, even about a comedian I love. His best work, The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein, is so strong that it does not need every film to be a masterpiece. The peaks are high enough, and the laughter in those peaks is enough to carry his name, and to make him one of the greatest comedians in history.

What I take from his life is a lesson about laughter as survival. Brooks grew up poor, he lost his father, he served in a war, and he used humour to survive, to succeed, and to make the world a better place. He believed that laughter is a weapon, and that it can be used against evil, against racism, and against fear, and he used it, again and again, for seventy years. I think that is a useful lesson for all of us, especially in hard times: a joke can help, a laugh can help, and making someone else laugh is a generous act, even when you are sad yourself. Brooks knew that, and he practised it, every day, for a lifetime.

If I could ask Brooks one question, I would ask him what he learned from seventy years of making people laugh, and whether he still finds it funny, after all this time. I think he would say that he still finds it funny, and that he still loves to make people laugh, because laughter is the best thing in the world, and because it is the one thing that never gets old. That is a beautiful answer, and it is one I want to keep. Laughter does not get old, even when we do, and a man who can make people laugh at ninety-nine has done something that few people can do: he has stayed young, by staying funny.

In the end, I think Brooks teaches me that comedy is serious, and that a joke can be a form of resistance, a form of love, and a form of survival, all at once. He was born in Brooklyn, he lost his father at two, he grew up poor, and he became the funniest man in America, by making jokes about Hitler, about Westerns, and about Frankenstein, and by making people laugh for seventy years. He is still alive, still working, and still funny, at ninety-nine, and that is a legacy that few people have left. I am glad we have his films, and I am glad he is still with us, and I hope that the next time I watch Young Frankenstein, I will remember the boy from Brooklyn who learned to be funny to survive, and who turned that survival into a gift for the whole world.

I also think about The Producers musical, and about how it gave Brooks a second fame, in his seventies, when most people would have retired. He wrote songs, he won twelve Tony Awards, and he became an EGOT winner, one of the few people in history to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. That is a remarkable achievement, and it shows that a person does not have to stop at seventy, and that a new form, a musical, can bring new life to an old film. I think about my own life, and about how I will feel at seventy, and I hope I can still try new things, like Brooks did, and still find joy in work, even when I am old. He proves that it is possible, and that age is not a reason to stop, but a reason to try something new.

There is a lesson in his memoir, All About Me!, published when he was ninety-five, that I want to keep. He wrote a book about his life, with stories about Brooklyn, about Your Show of Shows, and about his films, and he did it with humour, and with honesty, and he talked about Anne Bancroft, and about his grief, and about his life after her death. That book is a gift, because it is a record of a life lived in comedy, told by the man who lived it, in his own voice, at ninety-five. I think about how important it is to tell your own story, in your own words, before someone else tells it for you, and Brooks did that, with grace, and with laughter, and I am grateful to him for it.

I think about his son Max, and about how he became a writer, known for World War Z, and how he learned from his father to be funny, and to be serious, at the same time. That is a family story, about a father who taught his son to use humour to talk about difficult things, and about a son who did so, in his own way, with zombies, and with a war, and with a book that is both funny and frightening. I respect Max for finding his own voice, and I respect Mel for giving him the space to do so, and for being a father who encouraged his son, rather than trying to make him a copy of himself. That is a good way to be a parent, and a good way to be a teacher.

Finally, I want to say something about his age, ninety-nine, and about how he is still alive, still working, and still funny, and how rare that is. He is a living link to the golden age of American comedy, to Sid Caesar, to Carl Reiner, and to the writers who shaped television, and he is still here, telling jokes, and making people laugh. I hope he lives to one hundred, and beyond, and I hope he keeps making people laugh, because the world needs laughter, especially now, and because a man who has made people laugh for seventy years has earned the right to keep doing so, for as long as he can. I am glad he is still with us, and I am glad we have his films, his musicals, and his memoir, to remind us of what he did, and of how he did it, with humour, with love, and with a belief that laughter is a weapon against evil.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was Mel Brooks born?

Mel Brooks was born on 28 June 1926 in Brooklyn, New York, as Melvin Kaminsky. His father died when he was two, and he grew up poor in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with his mother and three brothers.

What was The 2000 Year Old Man?

The 2000 Year Old Man was a comedy routine created by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, in which Reiner interviewed Brooks as a two-thousand-year-old man. It was improvised, became a hit record in the 1960s, and made Brooks famous as a performer.

What is The Producers about?

The Producers, released in 1967, is about two men who try to make money by producing a flop Broadway musical called Springtime for Hitler. The plan backfires when the show becomes a hit. Brooks won an Academy Award for the screenplay.

What are Mel Brooks’s most famous films?

His best-known films are The Producers from 1967, Blazing Saddles from 1974, and Young Frankenstein from 1974. He also directed Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of the World Part I, Spaceballs, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

Was Mel Brooks married to Anne Bancroft?

Yes, Brooks was married to the actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death in 2005, a marriage of forty-one years. They had a son, Max Brooks, who is a writer known for World War Z.

What is an EGOT and did Mel Brooks win one?

An EGOT is winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. Brooks is one of the few people to do so, winning his Tony Awards for The Producers musical in 2001, when he was seventy-four.