Age: 99
male
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 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 the 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. He 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 comedy series Get Smart (1965–1970) on NBC television. Brooks won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Producers (1967). He then rose to prominence by directing a string of successful comedy films such as The Twelve Chairs (1970), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Silent Movie (1976), and High Anxiety (1977). Later, Brooks made History of the World, Part I (1981), Spaceballs (1987), Life Stinks (1991), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995). A musical adaptation of his first film, The Producers, ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2007 and earned Brooks three Tony Awards. The project was remade into a musical film in 2005. He wrote and produced the Hulu series History of the World, Part II (2023). Brooks was married to actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until she died in 2005. Their son, Max Brooks, is an actor and author known for his novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006). In 2021, Mel Brooks published his memoir titled All About Me!. Three of his films are included on the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 comedy films of the past 100 years (1900–2000), all of which were ranked in the top 15: Blazing Saddles at number 6, The Producers at number 11, and Young Frankenstein at number 13.
Mel Brooks
The Mayor
for The Mayor in Mother (film) (Johnsonverse)
Suggested by nascarsonicblueyfan
is a 1991 American-British science fiction film produced and internationally released by Johnson Studios, in association with the BBC, Toho, and Timothy Hill Productions, with 20th Century Fox handling distribution in the US, based on the 1989 Famicom game of the same name developed by Ape Inc. and published by Nintendo. It was written, produced, and directed by Timothy Hill from a story treatment by Shigesato Itoi, and stars Mike Vogel, Kate Hudson, Aaron Paul, Rob McElhenney, William Shatner, Jackie Chan, and the voice of James Earl Jones. The movie follows the plot of the game closely, but focuses more on the United States military's efforts against Giegue's invasion of Earth than the efforts of Ninten, Ana, Lloyd, and Teddy (though they still appear and play important roles). The first film in the franchise, it is notable for being the last film released by Johnson Studios during Phil Stacker's infamous tenure as CEO; it was released on October 4, 1991 to mixed reviews, though modern reviews have been much kinder. It received an even more well-known sequel in EarthBound, which was released in 1997 to universal acclaim and was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2013.
