Comprehensive information and links about Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks (born June 28, 1926Mel Brooks is a Jewish-American actor, writer director, and theatrical producer best known as a creator of broad film farces and comedic parodies.

in Brooklyn, New York, Brooks served in the US Army during World War II as an engineer, stationed in North Africa. He started out in show business as a stand-up comic before becoming a comedy writer for television, working on , a collection of ad libbed comedy routines made into a series of comedy records. With Buck Henry, he created the successful TV series , a well-received Robin Hood parody that lasted only 13 episodes; nearly 20 years later, Brooks mounted another Robin Hood parody with .

He later moved into film, working as an actor, director, writer and producer. Among his most popular films have been (co-written with Richard Pryor), both of which were released in 1974. Brooks developed a repertory company of sorts for his film work: performers with three or more Brooks films to their credit include Wilder, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman and, of course, Brooks himself.

In 1980 Brooks became interested in producing the film "The Elephant Man" directed by David Lynch. Knowing that anyone seeing the poster with "Mel Brooks presents The Elephant Man" would go along expecting a comedy, he set up the company Brooksfilm to produce the film. Brooksfilm has since produced a number of non-comedy films, including David Cronenberg's to the Broadway stage. Brooks was also featured in the 2005 animated film Robots. He is currently working on a sequel to his 1987 hit series.

Brooks is one of a select group who have received an Oscar, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy. In a 2005 poll to find , he was voted #50 of the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. Three of Brooks' films are on the American Film Institute's list of funniest American films: (#13).

Brooks was married to Florence Baum from 1951 to 1961. Their marriage ended in divorce. Mel and Florence had three children, Stefanie, Nicky, and Eddie. More famously, he was married to the actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death June 6, 2005. They met on rehearsal for the Perry Como variety show in 1961 and married 3 years later, August 5th. They had one son, Maximillian, in 1972.

They worked together on two films: Brooks' 1983 remake of . Years later, they appeared as themselves in the fourth season finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm, spoofing the finale of to Broadway where it became an enormous success, as the show broke the Tony record with 12 wins, a record that had previously been held for 37 years by Hello, Dolly! at 10 wins. Such success has translated to a big screen version of the Broadway adaptationremake with actors Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane reprising their stage roles, in addition to new cast members Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell for Christmas 2005.

table (2001) (composer, lyricist, co-book-writer, producer; Tony Award for Best Musical, Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical,Tony Award for Best Original Score):

Count de Monet (Harvey Korman) (consistently mispronounced as "money"): "Bearnaise, do we have any of those delicious raisins left?"Count de Monet: "Don't get saucy with me, Bearnaise."

Count de Monet: "It is said that the people are revolting"King Louis XVI: (Mel Brooks) "You said it. They stink on ice."

Impoverished Paris Street Merchant: "Rats, rats for sale. Get your rats. Good for rat stew, rat soup, or the ever-popular ratatouille."

King Louis XVI (prior to his arrest): "It's good to be the king."

Tomás de Torquemada: "It's better to lose your skullcap than your skull."

"President Skroob" (Brooks) from : From this day forward, all toilets in this kingdom shall be known as...'John's'!

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