Mel Brooks

Also known as Melvin Brooks, Melvin Kaminsky

Melvin James Brooks is an American actor, filmmaker, comedian, songwriter, and playwright. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 28 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2024.

OverviewAI-generated

Mel Brooks, born Melvin Kaminsky in Brownsville on June 28, 1926, is a United States citizen and actor, film director, and screenwriter. He served in the United States Army during World War II. His education included attendance at Brooklyn College and the Virginia Military Institute. Brooks has been influenced by Fred Astaire, Jack Benny, and Bob Hope. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Writers Guild of America West.

Brooks has received numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay, the Grammy Award for Best Music Film, the Nebula Award for Best Script, and the Saturn Award for Best Director. He has also been recognized in the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Peabody Award collection. His notable works include *Spaceballs*, *High Anxiety*, and *The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000*.

He is married to Anne Bancroft and is the father of Max Brooks. Brooks resides in Fire Island and Brooklyn. He speaks English.

Synthesized by Vinony from 33 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

In the Vinony graph

Mel Brooks is indexed among the 205 entries in Vinony's Best Original Screenplay collection. It also appears in Kennedy Center Honors.

Vinony's link graph records 2,401 inbound references to Mel Brooks, and connects out to YouTube, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and X (social network).

It sits within the topics 1926 births, 20th-century American comedians and 20th-century American Jews.

Vinony links it to 69 Wikipedia language editions.

Person · Open Library

Born: 1926
Works: 25

Top works

Spaceballs
ha-Mefiḳim
The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000
2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000
High Anxiety

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Melvin James Brooks (né Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and songwriter. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 21 entertainers to win the EGOT (which includes an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony). He received a…

Known for

Spaceballs: The New One — President Skroob / Yogurt2027
The Land of Sometimes — The Postman (voice)2026
Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! — Self2026
Flower of the Dawn — Bürgermeister (voice)2025
From Darkness to Light — Self (archive footage)2025
John Candy: I Like Me — Self - Director, Spaceballs2025
The Hanging of Stuart Cornfeld2025
Paddy Chayefsky: Collector of Words — Self2025
Remembering Gene Wilder — Self2024
Mel Brooks: Seriously... Well, Almost — Self2024

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Country: United States
Active from: 1926

Discography

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Wikipedia views (30d)

187,472 total

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Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: Mel
Gender: male
Citizenship: United States
Place of birth: Brownsville
Child: Max Brooks
Occupation: journalist
Educated at: Brooklyn College
Languages spoken: English language
Native language: English language
Award: Peabody Awards
Notable work: Dracula: Dead and Loving It
Field of work: cinematography
Genre: physical comedy
Conflict: World War II
Military branch: United States Army
Military rank: soldier
Official website: www.melbrooks.com
Image: MelBrooksApr10.jpg
Number of children: 4
Residence: Brooklyn

Show 12 more facts

Commons category: Mel Brooks
date of birth: 1926-06-28
topic's main category: Category:Mel Brooks
influenced by: Bob Hope
member of: Writers Guild of America West
birth name: Melvin Kaminsky
name in native language: Mel Brooks
start of work period: 1949-00-00
related category: Category:Films with screenplays by Mel Brooks
time period: 20th century
social media followers: 12500
writing language: English language

Sources (10)

via Wikidata · CC0

~39 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Melvin James Brooks (né Kaminsky; born June 28, 1926) is an American actor, filmmaker, comedian, songwriter, and playwright. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 28 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2024.

Brooks began his career as a comic and a writer for Sid Caesar's variety show Your Show of Shows (1950–1954). There, he worked with Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart, and Carl Reiner. With Reiner, he co-created the comedy sketch "The 2000 Year Old Man" and released several comedy albums, starting with 2000 Year Old Man in 1960. Brooks received five nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album finally winning in 1999. With Buck Henry, he created the hit satirical spy NBC television comedy series Get Smart (1965–1970).

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mel Brooks” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.