Mel Brooks, director, producer, writer, and actor, is one of the few entertainers in an elite group to earn all four major entertainment awards: the Emmy, the Grammy, the Oscar, and the Tony. In 2009 he was a Kennedy Center Honoree, recognized for a lifetime of extraordinary contributions to American culture. In 2013 he was the forty-first recipient of the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. In 2016 he was presented with the National Medal of Arts by President Obama. His career began in television writing for Your Show of Shows, after which he helped create the TV series Get Smart. He and Carl Reiner wrote and performed the 2000 Year Old Man Grammy-winning comedy albums. He won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for his first feature film, The Producers. Many hit comedy films followed, including The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, History of the World Part I, To Be or Not to Be, Spaceballs, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. His film company, Brooksfilms Limited, produced critically acclaimed films such as The Elephant Man, Frances, My Favorite Year, and 84 Charing Cross Road. |
