A certifiable legend with an emphasis on the certifiable part in the entertainment industry, Mel Brooks was an Oscar, Emmy, Golden Globe and Tony-winning creator and performer of some of the biggest comedy hits on television, in film, and on Broadway. He got his start penning gags for Sid Caesar on the legendary Your Show of Shows (NBC, 1950-54) before developing his own series, Get Smart (NBC/CBS, 1965-1970). He soon graduated to directing films and turned out a string of uproarious and bawdy parodies of Hollywood genres, including Young Frankenstein (1974), Blazing Saddles (1974), and High Anxiety (1977) all considered classics by anyones standards. His first theatrical feature, The Producers (1968), later served as the basis for a hit Broadway musical, which earned Brooks and his cast and crew a record 12 Tony Awards.
Born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn, New York on June 28, 1926, Brooks discovered his ability to make others laugh in the same manner as so many other comedians by performing for his parents, Maximilian and Kate, and his brothers Leonard, Irving and Bernard. After serving as a combat engineer in Europe and North Africa with the Army during World War II, Brooks sharpened his chops as an emcee and musician at the Catskills resort Grossingers, where he also changed his name to Brooks (a variant on his mothers maiden name, Brookman) to avoid confusion with trumpeter Max Kaminsky. The experience helped to solidify some of the recurring themes and elements in Brooks comedy broad humor with a distinctly Jewish flavor, driven by larger-than-life portrayals, absurd wordplay, parodies of well-known celebrities and popular culture; all of it shot through with a vein of burlesque-style shtick. In 1951, Brooks married Florence Baum, with whom he had three children. The couple split in 1961.
Brooks career as a writer began with The Admiral Broadway Revue (NBC/Dumont, 1949), a Broadway-style variety program that brought together the formidable comedy team of Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Brooks followed the duo to their next variety series, Your Show of Shows (NBC, 1950-54), where he joined such budding comic talents as Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, and Carl Reiner, and its follow-up, Caesars Hour (NBC, 1954-57), where he was joined by a young Woody Allen. Brooks also contributed sketch material to the revue New Faces of 1952, which ran on Broadway in that year. He also displayed a talent for penning musical theater Brooks co-wrote the book for Shinbone Alley (1957), based on the New York Tribune columns by Don Marquis about a lovelorn cat and a philosophical cockroach (an animated film based on the musical was released in 1971), and contributed most of the book for the 1962 musical All American. During this period, Brooks also met and wooed actress Ann Bancroft, who was the toast of Broadway at the time for her performance in the Broadway play The Miracle Worker. The couple married in 1964 and had one son, Max, who later achieved fame as a writer for Saturday Night Live (NBC, 1975- ) and several horror-related fiction and non-fiction books.
While exploring these venues, Brooks also developed a comic character called The 2,000 Year Old Man, which grew out of a painful bout of gout that left Brooks feeling not unlike his ancient character. Brooks and Carl Reiner improvised and recorded an interview with the character at a party, which lead to several TV appearances and helped establish Brooks reputation as one of the quickest wits in American comedy.
Brooks first foray into film won an Academy Award The Critic (1963), an animated short written by Brooks and directed by Ernest Pintoff, spoofed the unfathomable nature of certain experimental films by showing a stream of abstract images, under which the voice of an elderly audience member (Brooks) can be heard complaining. He then returned to television to create Get Smart with Buck Henry. The series, which revolved around the misadventures of bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart (Don Adams), offered both a refreshing alternative to the glut of spy entertainment in the mid-60s and a hilarious showcase for Brooks humor.
Brooks made his debut as a writer-director with The Producers (1968), a broad farce about two failed Broadway producers (Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder) who deliberately set out to make the worst production possible in order to take advantage of a bookkeeping loophole. Unfortunately, the result, a pro-Nazi musical called Springtime for Hitler, becomes a smash hit. The film received numerous negative reviews upon its release, and was virtually abandoned by Embassy Pictures until Peter Sellers placed a full-page ad in Variety that sang the films praises. His support was echoed by the Academy and Writers Guild voters, who awarded Brooks an Oscar and WGA Award for Best Original Screenplay.
He returned two years later with The Twelve Chairs (1970), a slapstick adaptation of a 1928 Russian novel about a nobleman (Ron Moody) and a con man (Frank Langella) who embark on a slapstick search for the twelve chairs that hide a family fortune. The film was perhaps best noted for the first collaboration between Brooks and comic actor Dom DeLuise, who appeared in six of Brooks 12 features. A four year break during which Brooks lent his voice to an animated character on The Electric Company (PBS, 1971-77) and voiced a curious infant boy on Marlo Thomas groundbreaking 1972 Free To Be You and Me LP (he also appeared in the 1974 TV special of the same name) preceded his first blockbuster, Blazing Saddles (1974), which simultaneously tweaked the Western genre and trod thoroughly on pre-conceived notions of cinematic good taste. Andrew Bergman (1979) and Richard Pryor were among the writers tapped by Brooks to work on the script; Pryor was also originally considered for the role of heroic sheriff Black Bart, but studio concern over his reputation and drug habits forced Brooks to cast Cleavon Little in his stead. Critics were again split over the film during its release, with many negative reviews focusing on the rampant racial jokes and explosive bodily function humor. But audiences turned out in droves, and the film received three Oscar nominations (Best Supporting Actress for Madeline Kahn as the Marlene Dietrich-esque Lili Shtupp, Best Film Editing, and Best Song for the title song, sung with gusto by Frankie Laine) as well as a Writers Guild Award for Best Comedy. In 2006, it was selected by the National Film Registry for preservation.
That same year, Brooks turned his satiric eye on the Universal horror films of the 1930s with Young Frankenstein (1974), which told the story of Frankenstein relative Frederich (Gene Wilder, who also co-wrote the script), who returns to his grandfathers castle to bring another monster (Peter Boyle) to life with the assistance of hunchback Igor (pronounced Eye-gor, and played by Marty Feldman). Shot in black-and-white and featuring numerous period camera effects and props from the 1931 Frankenstein, the film was perhaps Brooks most successful blend of raunch and absurdism, and featured one of the most indelible comic moments of the late 20th century the sight of Dr. Frankenstein displaying his monsters abilities by leading him in a tone-deaf version of Puttin On the Ritz. Another audience favorite, the film took home two Golden Globes (for Madeline Kahn as Frederichs fianc
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