Mel Brooks

“Hope for the best, expect the worst. Life is a play. We’re unrehearsed” Mel Brooks once said. Mel Brooks has been honored for his life time achievement in performing arts with Kennedy Centre life time achievement award.

Mel Brooks is credited with bringing an element of innovation into Jewish comedy and made it more mainstream.

But his efforts came to fruition later in his career when he remade his first film ‘The Producers’. If anyone wants to see the true genius of Mel Brooks, ‘Young Frankenstein’ would be enough to highlight the skills and perfection, he has got. 1950s saw him working for the show ‘Your Show of Shows’.

Mel Brooks found his mental synchronicity with the actor Gene Wilder and with him he made hit comedy films including ‘Blazing Saddles’.

Despite the fact that Mel remained very ill during his childhood years and served as an engineer in World War II, he used his experiences to create comedy. He found vaudeville and burlesque as his forte.

His style of creating humor became an instant hit in 1950s. He worked with famous comedians like Woody Allen and Neil Simon.

Anne Bancroft was Mel Brooks’ long time love. They both remained married until she died. Brooks wrote and directed ‘Springtime for Hitler’.

He also acted in the film. When the film Producers were made, it was a very bold idea as it was not very long ago that World War has ended and the film was a hit on Hitler.

Came 1980s and Mel Brooks style started fading fast. History of the World, Part I was a total failure of box office, so Brooks changed his style into a more serious one with The Elephant Man.