Mel Brooks
Biography
Mel Brooks is an American comedian, actor, director, songwriter and playwright whose career has spanned nine decades, much of it devoted to farces and parodies. Born in Brooklyn in 1926, he began his career writing for Sid Caesar's television variety series Your Show of Shows and later created Get Smart with Buck Henry. His first feature, The Producers (1967), won him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He followed it with The Twelve Chairs (1970) and a run of comedies including Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Silent Movie (1976), High Anxiety (1977), History of the World: Part I (1981) and Spaceballs (1987). His Broadway musical adaptation of The Producers won 12 Tony Awards, and through Brooksfilms he produced dramas such as The Elephant Man. He has voiced roles in Robots (2005) and the Hotel Transylvania films, and he is among the few entertainers to have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.
100years old
Turns 101 on June 28in 257 days
- Born Brownsville
- Star sign: CancerThe sign runs June 21 to July 22
- Melvin Kaminsky (birth name)Also credited as Melvin Brooks
Movie Career
- Films
- 27
- Career span
- 55 years1970 to 2025
Genres
- Comedy70%, 19 films
- Documentary30%, 8 films
- Adventure19%, 5 films
- Animation19%, 5 films
- Family19%, 5 films
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Behind the camera
Brooks conceived the animated short The Critic, a spoof of Norman McLaren's abstract animation, ad-libbing the commentary as a baffled moviegoer; it won Best Animated Short at the 36th Academy Awards.
Behind the camera
Brooks founded Brooksfilms to produce David Lynch's The Elephant Man because a poster reading "Mel Brooks presents The Elephant Man" would have led audiences to expect a comedy.
Behind the award
Brooks and Thomas Meehan's musical version of The Producers opened on Broadway in 2001, with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick as Bialystock and Bloom. It won 12 Tony Awards, a record, among them Best Musical.
Mel Brooks movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
- Blazing Saddles1974 Comedy, Westernas Governor William J. Lepetomane / Indian Chief
IMDb rating 7.7167K votes
- History of the World: Part I1981as Moses / Comicus / Torquemada / Jacques / King Louis XVI
IMDb rating 6.860K votes
Most often with
Genndy Tartakovsky directed two of these films. Dom DeLuise appears in six of them, more than any other actor. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Dom DeLuise's page
Madeline Kahn's page
Harvey Korman's page
Rudy De Luca's page
Cloris Leachman's page
Richard Pryor's page
All films by Genndy Tartakovsky
Also three films together3 more actors
- Dick Van PattenRobin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), Spaceballs (1987) and High Anxiety (1977)
- Sid CaesarRemembering Gene Wilder (2023), History of the World: Part I (1981) and Silent Movie (1976)
- Ron CareyHistory of the World: Part I (1981), High Anxiety (1977) and Silent Movie (1976)
When several people share the same number of films, the ones with the most films on Netflix are in the chart.
Box office
What Mel Brooks's films earned in cinemas worldwide.
Combined worldwide box office
$2.0 billion
20 of the 27 films have a worldwide figure.
Of the 27 films: 20 worldwide figure; 1 us gross only; 3 never in cinemas; 3 figure not found.
- 20Worldwide figure
- 1US gross only
- 3Never in cinemas
- 3Figure not found
Highest grossing
The eight biggest films earned 88% of the total. The bars are drawn to scale.
- 1$529M26.4% of the total
- 2$473M23.6% of the total
- 3$263M13.1% of the total
- 4$121M6.0% of the total
- 5$120M6.0% of the total
- 6$110M5.5% of the total
- 7$76M3.8% of the total
- 8$67M3.4% of the total
$245 millionfrom the other 12 films with a worldwide figure, 12% of the total
Awards
Fifteen awards and honors from 1967 to 2024, thirteen of them major.
| Year | Award | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | |||
| 2024 | Honorary Award | Honorary | |
| 1969 | Best Writing, Original Screenplay | The Producers | Won |
| Emmy Awards | |||
| 1999 | Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series | Mad About You | Won |
| 1998 | Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series | Mad About You | Won |
| 1997 | Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series | Mad About You | Won |
| 1967 | Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series | Won | |
| Tony Awards | |||
| 2001 | Best Book of a Musical | The Producers | Won |
| 2001 | Best Original Score | The Producers | Won |
| Grammy Awards | |||
| 2002 | Best New New Jack Swing Artist | Won | |
| 2001 | Best Musical Theater Album | Won | |
| 2001 | Best New New Jack Swing Artist | Won | |
| 1998 | Best Comedy Album | Won | |
| 1998 | Grammy Hall of Fame | Won | |
| Other honors | |||
| 2013 | AFI Life Achievement Award | Won | |
| 2009 | Kennedy Center Honors | Won | |
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.