Comedy legend Mel Brooks is celebrating a milestone few people reach and even fewer reach while still making movies. The EGOT-winning writer, director, producer, and performer turns 100 today, marking a century of life spent making audiences laugh.
If you’ve ever quoted Blazing Saddles, hummed along to The Producers, laughed through Young Frankenstein or wondered why Spaceballs somehow gets funnier with age, you’ve experienced Brooks’ unmistakable brand of comedy. His fearless willingness to poke fun at everything from Hollywood westerns and horror films to dictators, history and even Star Wars forever changed American comedy.
Born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn in 1926, Brooks served as a U.S. Army combat engineer during World War II before finding his voice as a comic in New York’s Catskills. He later became a writer for Sid Caesar’s groundbreaking television shows and teamed up with Carl Reiner to create the beloved “2000-Year-Old Man” comedy routine.
His film career launched with the Oscar-winning screenplay for The Producers before exploding in 1974 with the back-to-back success of Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. Decades later, he adapted The Producers into a Broadway phenomenon that won a record 12 Tony Awards.
Unlike many Hollywood legends, Brooks hasn’t slowed down. At 100, he’s still creating. He returned with Hulu’s History of the World, Part II in 2023, and a long-awaited Spaceballs sequel is currently in development, with actor Josh Gad recently sharing a photo celebrating Brooks ahead of his birthday.
Brooks has always had a simple philosophy about comedy. As he wrote in his 2021 memoir, if the audience isn’t “holding their bellies, screaming with laughter,” then it probably isn’t working.
After 100 years, dozens of awards, and generations of comedians inspired by his work, it’s safe to say Mel Brooks understood the assignment. And thankfully for the rest of us, he still does.
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