People[link]

• Abby Dalton, an American actress
• Abby Hoffman, a former Canadian track and field athlete
• Abbie Hoffman, American social and political activist
• Abby Johnson (activist), American pro-life activist
• Abby Kelley, an American abolitionist and radical social reformer
• Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, a prominent socialite and philanthropist and the second-generation matriarch of the Rockefeller family
• Abby Rockefeller Mauzé, the first child and only daughter of Abby Rockefeller and John Davison Rockefeller, Jr.
• Abby Singer, a production manager and assistant director in film between the 1950s and the 1980s
• Abby Sunderland, a sailor who was rescued whilst trying to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the world
• Abby Travis, an American musician
• Abby Wambach, an Olympic medalist and professional soccer player.

In fiction, media[link]

• Abby, 12 year old vampire character in the movie Let Me In
• Abby Cadabby, a fictional character on TV show Sesame Street
• Abby (film), a 1974 blaxploitation/horror film about a woman who is possessed by an African demon
• Abby Holland, a fictional comic book character who exists in the DC Universe
• Abby Lockhart, a fictional medical doctor in the television series ER
• Abby Maitland, a fictional character in the ITV sci-fi drama Primeval
• Abby Sciuto, a fictional forensic scientist in the television series NCIS
• Abby the Cow, a fictional character in the Nickelodeon animated series, Back at the Barnyard
• Abby (TV series), a 2003 television series starring Sydney Tamiia Poitier
• Dear Abby, a syndicated personal advice column
• Abby Newman, a character on the American soap opera The Young and the Restless
• Abby Deveraux, a character on the American soap opera Days of our Lives

Other uses[link]

• Tropical Storm Abby (disambiguation), the name used for three tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean, and three tropical cyclones in the Western Pacific Ocean
• ABBY, former book award of the American Booksellers Association, now called Book Sense Book of the Year.
• Abby (interbank network), the name of a former interbank network

See also[link]

• Abbey (disambiguation)
• ABBYY, an international software company
• Abbot, given name; 'Abbie' familiar may be used

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Abigail Loraine Hensel and Brittany Lee Hensel (born March 7, 1990) are dicephalic parapagus twins, meaning that they are conjoined twins of whom each has a separate head, but whose bodies are joined. They are highly symmetric, giving the appearance of having just a single body with little variation from normal proportion. In fact, several vital organs are doubled up, each twin having a separate heart, stomach, spine and spinal cord.

Each twin controls her half of their body, operating one of the arms and one of the legs. This means that as infants, the initial learning of physical processes that required bodily coordination, such as clapping, crawling, and walking required the cooperation of both children. While each is able to eat and write separately and simultaneously, activities such as running and swimming must be coordinated and alternate symmetrically. Other activities as diverse as brushing hair and driving a car require that each twin perform a sequence of quite separate actions that coordinate with the other.

Despite the curiosity that their condition has generated, the Hensel twins have managed to live private lives with relatively little press attention. At the age of 16, they gave an interview on The Learning Channel on December 17, 2006, in which they discussed aspects of their daily lives and plans for the future.

Background[link]

Abigail and Brittany Hensel were born in Carver County, Minnesota, the daughters of Patty, a registered nurse, and Mike Hensel, a carpenter and landscaper. The twins have a younger brother named Dakota, or Koty for short, a younger sister named Morgan, and a dog named Sadie. They were raised in New Germany and attended Lutheran High School in Mayer, Minnesota.

Physiology[link]

The Hensel twins have a single body with separate heads and necks, a chest that is wider than normal, two arms and two legs. At birth, they had a rudimentary arm attached to a shoulder blade at the back. The arm was removed, leaving the shoulder blade.

Abigail's head tilts laterally outward about 5 degrees to the right, while Brittany's head tilts laterally at about 15 degrees to the left, causing Brittany to appear shorter. At age 12, they underwent surgery at Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare to correct scoliosis and to expand their chest cavity to prevent future difficulties with breathing.^[1]

Each of the twins manages one side of their conjoined body. The sense of touch of each is restricted to her body half; this shades off at the midsagittal plane such that there is a small amount of overlap at the midline. They are effective in cooperatively using their limbs when both hands or both legs are required. By coordinating their efforts, they are able to walk, run, swim and ride a bicycle normally—all tasks that they learned at a normal speed. Together, they can type on a computer keyboard at a normal speed and drive a car.

Organ distribution[link]

Abigail and Brittany have individual organs in the upper part of their body, while most of the organs located at or below the level of the navel are shared, the exception being the spinal cord.^[2]

• 2 heads
• 2 spines merging at the coccyx and joined at the thorax by sections of ribs. Surgery was employed to correct scoliosis.
• 2 completely separate spinal cords
• 2 arms (originally 3, but rudimentary central arm was surgically removed, leaving central shoulder blade in place)
• 1 broad ribcage with 2 highly fused sternums and traces of bridging ribs. Surgery was employed to expand the pleural cavities.
• 2 breasts
• 2 hearts in a shared circulatory system (nutrition, respiration, medicine taken by either affects both)
• 4 lungs with the medial lungs moderately fused, not involving Brittany's upper right lobe; three pleural cavities
• 1 diaphragm with well-coordinated involuntary breathing, slight central defect
• 2 stomachs
• 2 gallbladders
• 1 liver, enlarged and elongated right lobe
• Y-shaped small intestine, which experiences a slightly spastic double peristalsis at the juncture
• 1 large intestine with one colon
• 3 kidneys: 2 left, 1 right
• 1 bladder
• 1 set of reproductive organs
• 2 separate half-sacrums, which converge distally
• 1 slightly broad pelvis
• 2 legs

Separation[link]

Upon their birth, their parents rejected the option to attempt surgical separation after hearing from doctors that it was not likely that both girls would survive the operation. As the girls grew and learned to walk and develop other skills, the parents confirmed their decision against separation, arguing that the quality of life for the surviving twin or twins living separately would be less than their quality of life as conjoined beings.^[3]

Adulthood[link]

The Hensel twins both successfully passed their drivers license exams, both the written and driving tests. They had to take the tests twice, once for each twin. Abby controls the pedals, radio, heat, defogger, and other devices located to the right of the driver's seat, while Brittany controls the turn signal and lights; together, they control the steering wheel.

They both graduated from high school in 2008. They began college at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.

In conversation, the twins are clearly distinct persons, with distinct likes and dislikes. Their preferences in food, clothing color, etc., differ. Some of their clothes are altered by their seamstress so that they have two separate necklines in order to emphasize their individuality. They will usually have separate meals, but sometimes will share a single meal for the sake of convenience (e.g., each takes a bite of the same hamburger). Abigail is better at mathematics, and Brittany is better at writing. For tasks such as responding to e-mail, they type and respond as one, anticipating each other's feelings with little verbal communication between them. In such cases as the latter, their choice of grammatical person is to use the first person singular out of habit when they agree, but when their responses do differ, they use their names in the third person singular.

There is some concern about their ability to have continued good health, because only four known sets of conjoined twins who share an undivided torso and two legs have ever survived into adulthood, and most have congenital heart defects or other organ anomalies. None have shown up in the Hensels' case. They have so far had no desire to make themselves available for any medical studies. They intend to make a rather limited number of media appearances in the future, primarily just to appease the world's curiosity and to reduce the number of people who might otherwise be taken aback by their unusual body configuration. They intensely dislike being stared at or photographed by strangers while going about their private lives.^[4] In the interviews made for Discovery Channel in 2006, the girls, then 16, said that they hoped to date, get married, and have children. They also stated that they hoped that by providing some information about themselves, they would be able to lead otherwise fairly typical social lives as together, they continue to make new friends.^[4][5]

Media appearances[link]

In April 2006, they appeared in Joined for Life, a TV documentary produced by Advanced Medical and distributed on the Discovery Health Channel. They also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 8 and April 29, 1996. In April 1996, the twins were featured on the cover of Life under the caption "One Body, Two Souls", and their daily lifestyle was depicted in the corresponding article entitled "The Hensels' Summer". Life followed up with another story in September 1998. In 2003, an updated story of them at age 11 (filmed in 2001) was published in Time and again in Life. They appeared in a follow-up documentary on The Learning Channel on December 17, 2006, filmed around the time of their 16th birthday, in which they discuss dealing with puberty and getting their driver's licenses. In the summer of 2006, they had a vacation in Texas at the home of a family whose dicephalus twin girls had died at a few hours old.^{[3][6][7][8][9][10]}

Filmography[link]

Documentaries and other television appearances include:

References[link]

External links[link]

• Abby Hensel at the Internet Movie Database
• Britty Hensel at the Internet Movie Database

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2010)

John Prine
John Prine at MerleFest, Wilkesboro N.C. (2006)
Background information
Born	(1946-10-10) October 10, 1946 (age 65)
Origin	Maywood, Illinois, United States
Genres	Country Folk Progressive bluegrass
Occupations	Singer-songwriter Guitarist
Instruments	Vocals Guitar
Years active	1971–present
Labels	Atlantic, Asylum, Oh Boy, Rhino
Associated acts	Steve Goodman
Website	www.johnprine.net

John Prine (born October 10, 1946, in Maywood, Illinois) is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.

Biography[link]

Prine is the son of William Prine and Verna Hamm. Prine started playing guitar at age 14, taught by his brother, David.^[1] Prine attended Proviso East High School, and was a member on the school's gymnastic team. He was a postman for five years and served in the Army during the Vietnam War era, serving in Germany, before beginning his musical career in Chicago.

In the late 1960s, while Prine was delivering mail in Maywood, Illinois, he began to sing at open mic evenings at the Fifth Peg on Armitage Avenue. Prine was initially a spectator, reluctant to perform, but eventually did so in response to a "You think you can do better?" comment made to him by another performer. Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert heard him there and wrote the first review Prine ever received, calling him a great songwriter.^[2] He became a central figure in the Chicago Folk Revival, which also included such singer-songwriters as Steve Goodman, Bonnie Koloc, Jim Post and Fred Holstein. Joined by such established musicians as Jethro Burns and Bob Gibson, Prine performed frequently at such clubs as the Earl of Old Town, the Quiet Knight, Somebody Else's Troubles, The 5th Peg, and the Bulls.

John Prine is currently living in Nashville with his third wife, Fiona Whelan. They have three children, stepson Jody Whelan, Tommy and Jack. Prine has a second residence in Pinellas County, Florida.

Recordings[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2010)

In 1971 Prine's self-titled debut album was released. He and friend Steve Goodman had each been active in the Chicago folk scene before being "discovered" by Kris Kristofferson (Kristofferson remarked that Prine wrote songs so good that "we'll have to break his thumbs"). The album included his signature songs "Illegal Smile," "Sam Stone," and the folk and country standards "Angel from Montgomery" and "Paradise." The album also included "Hello In There", a song about aging that was later covered by numerous artists and "Far From Me," a lonely waltz about lost love for a waitress that Prine later said was his favorite of all his songs. The album received many positive reviews, and some hailed Prine as "the next Dylan." Bob Dylan himself appeared unannounced at one of Prine's first New York City club appearances, anonymously backing him on harmonica.

Prine's second album, Diamonds In The Rough, was a surprise for many after the critical success of his first LP; it was an uncommercial, stripped-down affair that reflected Prine's fondness for bluegrass music and features songs reminiscent of Hank Williams's work as Luke The Drifter. Highlights include the allegorical "The Great Compromise," which features a recitation and addresses the Vietnam War, and the touching ballad "Souvenirs," which Prine later recorded with Goodman.

Later albums include Sweet Revenge (1973), containing such fan favorites as "Dear Abby," "Grandpa Was A Carpenter," and "Christmas In Prison", and Common Sense (1975), with "Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard". The latter album was Prine's first to be charted in the US Top 100 by Billboard, reflecting growing commercial success. It was produced by Steve Cropper. Many veteran Prine fans view the release of 1978's Bruised Orange as a creative highpoint. The Steve Goodman-produced album gave listeners songs such as "The Hobo Song," "Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone," and the title track showing that he could capture the human condition as easily as writing politically inspired anthems.

In 1974, singer David Allan Coe achieved considerable success on the country charts with "You Never Even Called Me By My Name", co-written by Prine and Goodman. The song good-naturedly spoofed stereotypical country music lyrics. Prine refused to take a songwriter's credit and the tune went to Goodman, although Goodman bought Prine a jukebox as a gift from his publishing royalties.

The 1979 album Pink Cadillac features two songs produced by legendary Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, who by this time rarely did any studio work. The first song, "Saigon," is about a Vietnam vet traumatized by the war ("The static in my attic's gettin' ready to blow"). During the recording, one of the guitar amps blew up (which is evident on the album track). The other song Phillips produced is "How Lucky," about Prine's hometown.

Prine continued writing and recording albums throughout the 1980s and formed his own record label, Oh Boy Records. His songs continued to be covered by other artists; the country supergroup The Highwaymen recorded "The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over," which had been written by Prine and Goodman. Steve Goodman died of leukemia in 1984 and Prine continues to perform many of Goodman's songs in concert to this day, such as "My Old Man."

In 1991, Prine released the Grammy Award-winning The Missing Years, his first collaboration with producer and Heartbreakers bassist Howie Epstein. The title song records Prine's humorous take on what Jesus did in the unrecorded years between his childhood and ministry. In 1995, Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings was released, another collaboration with Epstein. Prine followed in 1999 with In Spite of Ourselves, which was unusual for him in that it contained only one original song—the rest were covers of classic country songs—and all were duets with well-known female country vocalists, including Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Dolores Keane, and Iris DeMent (whom Prine appeared with on the Letterman Show & referred to as his "favorite girl singers".)

In 2001 John co-starred in the Billy Bob Thornton movie Daddy & Them (Alvin Montgomery), and "In Spite of Ourselves" can be heard as the end credits roll .

Cancer[link]

In early 1998, Prine was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer on the right side of his neck. He had surgery to remove the diseased tissue and was left with a substantial loss of tissue. This was followed by six weeks of radiation therapy.^[3] The surgery altered his vocals, and has added a "gravel" tone to his voice.^[4][5]

Awards and influence[link]

In 2003, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award for songwriting by the UK's BBC Radio 2 and that same year was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. The following year saw his song "Sam Stone" covered by Laura Cantrell for the Future Soundtrack for America compilation.

Prine has taken his place as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation. In 2009, Bob Dylan told the Huffington Post that Prine was one of his favourite writers, stating "Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs. I remember when Kris Kristofferson first brought him on the scene. All that stuff about "Sam Stone," the soldier junkie daddy, and "Donald and Lydia," where people make love from ten miles away. Nobody but Prine could write like that."^[6] In Johnny Cash's autobiography Cash, he admitted "I don't listen to music much at the farm, unless I'm going into songwriting mode and looking for inspiration. Then I'll put on something by the writers I've admired and used for years (Rodney Crowell, John Prine, Guy Clark, and the late Steve Goodman are my Big Four)..."^[7] When asked by Word Magazine in 2008 if he heard Pink Floyd's influence in newer British bands like Radiohead, Roger Waters replied "I don't really listen to Radiohead. I listened to the albums and they just didn't move me in the way, say, John Prine does. His is just extra-ordinarily eloquent music—and he lives on that plane with Neil Young and Lennon."^[8] Prine received the Artist of the Year award at the Americana Music Awards on September 9, 2005. The award was accepted in his name by awards host and long-time friend Billy Bob Thornton.

Recent years[link]

Prine recorded a version of Stephen Foster's "Old Kentucky Home" in 2004 for the compilation album Beautiful Dreamer, which won the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2005.

In 2005, Prine released his first all-new offering since Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings, the album Fair & Square, which tended toward a more laid-back, acoustic approach than, for example, Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings. The album contains songs such as "Safety Joe," about a man who has never taken any risks in his life, and also "Some Humans Ain't Human," Prine's protest piece on the album, which talks about the ugly side of human nature and includes a quick shot at President George W. Bush. Fair & Square won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. The album contains original songs plus two covers: A.P. Carter's "Bear Creek Blues" and Blaze Foley's "Clay Pigeons."

2010 kicked off with a flurry of Prine activity, as he stopped by The Marty Stuart Show on RFD-TV in January to perform three of his most popular recordings: "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness," "Souvenirs," & "Paradise." Later in May Prine appeared on Late Show With David Letterman, performing "All The Best" with Jim James of the band My Morning Jacket.

On July 3, 2010, Prine appeared at Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, broadcast on American Public Media's A Prairie Home Companion, playing several of his songs.^[9]

On September 30, 2011, Prine played a thirteen song set on the main Banjo Stage at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco, California.

Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows[link]

On June 22, 2010 Oh Boy Records released a tribute album titled "Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows: The Songs of John Prine". The album features members of the modern folk revival including My Morning Jacket, The Avett Brothers, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Lambchop, Josh Ritter, Drive-By Truckers, Nickel Creek's Sara Watkins, Deer Tick featuring Liz Isenberg, Justin Townes Earle, Those Darlins, and Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.^[10]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Guest singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• A Literary Evening with John Prine and Ted Kooser. March 9, 2005. The Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress.
• Interview with John Prine - KyndMusic, September 2005
• 1971 Radio Interview with John Prine on WGLD Oak Park - fr JOHNPRINE.NET
• John Prine at the Internet Movie Database

This article is incomplete. Please help to improve the article, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (February 2009)

Dear Abby Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame memorializing the Dear Abby radio show

Dear Abby is the name of the advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name Abigail Van Buren and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name.

According to Pauline Phillips, she came up with the pen name, Abigail Van Buren, by combining the name of a Biblical figure, Abigail in the Book of Samuel, with the last name of former U.S. President Martin Van Buren.

The column was syndicated by McNaught Syndicate from 1956 until 1966, when it moved to Universal Press Syndicate. Dear Abby's current syndication company claims the column is known for its "uncommon common sense and youthful perspective".^[1]

A similar column, Ask Ann Landers, was written from 1955 to 2002 by Pauline's twin sister Eppie Lederer.

In popular culture[link]

• The day after Lyndon Johnson's landslide victory in the 1964 U.S. Presidential election, nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist Bill Mauldin drew a cartoon captioned "Dear Abby..." in which he showed Johnson's defeated opponent Barry Goldwater writing a letter.
• In 1964, Dear Abby was the subject of a pop song with the same title, sung by The Hearts.
• Also in 1964, she appeared as herself in the Mister Ed episode "Ed Writes Dear Abby."
• In 1974, John Prine recorded a song called "Dear Abby" on his Sweet Revenge album.
• In the 1975 movie Dog Day Afternoon, one of the female bank tellers passed time by drafting a letter to Dear Abby during the hostage situation.
• In 1986, the Californian punk group Dead Kennedys recorded "Dear Abby" for their album Bedtime for Democracy.
• The original version of "The Chanukah Song", by Adam Sandler, contains the line "We got Ann Landers, and her sister Dear Abby", a reference to the Jewish heritage of the twins.
• The song "Beauty School Dropout" from the musical Grease mentions Dear Abby.
• An episode of The Brady Bunch involves an advice column called "Dear Libby", an obvious allusion to Dear Abby.
• On the episode of Clarissa Explains It All titled "Take My Advice...Please," there is a reference in the first few minutes to both Dear Abby and Ask Ann Landers by Clarissa (Melissa Joan Hart.)
• On the show Total Drama Island, in the episode "The Sucky Outdoors" when LeShawna is cornered by a bear, Owen shouts, "Dear Abby, she's going to die!"
• On the show Dexter, in the episode "Slack Tide" Dexter thinks "Dear Abby, I'm a serial killer and need advice..."
• In the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, various allusions are made to Dear Abby due to the fact that fictional character Pam reads her columns.
• Cited by the Shasta character on the 3rd page of Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice novel, when talking to Doc.
• In The Great Muppet Caper, after being asked which newspaper he would buy, Fozzie Bear says, "I read the one that has 'Dear Abby'."
• Dear Abby is the subject of much fodder on the weekly Tell 'Em Steve Dave podcast hosted by Bryan Johnson and Walter Flanagan.
• In an episode of Three's Company called "A Black Letter Day", a question posed in Dear Abby causes for a misunderstanding among Jack, Janet, and Chrissy. The question was "Dear Abby, I am a single man sharing an apartment with two women. I'm having an affair with one of them. How can we get the other to move out?" In the same episode, another question is read mistakenly by all three roommates: "Dear Abby, I am a Siamese twin. I like to go out with boys. How can I stop my sister from tagging along?".
• In My Big Fat Greek Wedding, upon making a poignant quote, brother Nick Portakalos claims "That Dear Abby, she really knows what she's talking about".
• On the hit sitcom All in the Family, Archie makes several sarcastic references throughout the series to Edith to "Write to Dear Abby" about her troubles.
• In the "Tomahawk Factory" chapter of Louise Erdrich's book Love Medicine, Lyman Lamartine refers to his mother's wig as the "Dear Abby" wig.

See also[link]

• Dear Beatrice Fairfax, the equivalent from the first half of the 20th century

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Dear Abby Website
• Dear Abby at Yahoo! News

Mel Brooks
Brooks in April 2010
Birth name	Melvin Kaminsky
Born	(1926-06-28) June 28, 1926 (age 85) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Medium	Film Television Musical theatre
Nationality	American
Years active	1949–present
Genres	Farce, parody
Subject(s)	Comedy
Influences	George M. Cohan Jack Benny Bob Hope Harry Ritz Fred Astaire Gene Kelly
Influenced	Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Andy Samberg
Spouse	Florence Baum (1953-62, divorced), 3 children Anne Bancroft (1964-2005, her death), 1 child (Max Brooks)
Notable works and roles	The Producers Blazing Saddles Young Frankenstein, History of the World, Part 1
Academy Awards
Best Original Screenplay 1968 The Producers
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program 1967 The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris Special Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series 1997, 1998, 1999 Mad About You
Tony Awards
Best Musical 2001 The Producers Best Book of a Musical 2001 The Producers Best Original Score 2001 The Producers
Laurence Olivier Awards
Best New Musical 2005 The Producers
Grammy Awards
Best Spoken Comedy Album 1999 2000 Year Old Man Best Long Form Music Video 2002 Recording 'The Producers': A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks Best Musical Show Album 2002 The Producers
Saturn Award
Saturn Award for Best Direction 1975 Young Frankenstein Mel Brooks has won an Oscar, three Emmys, three grammys, three tonys, and has received four Golden Globe nominations.

Mel Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky; June 28, 1926)^[1] is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows. He became well known as part of the comedy duo with Carl Reiner, The 2000 Year Old Man. In middle age he became one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s, with many of his films being among the top ten money makers of the year that they were released. His most well known films include The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, History of the World, Part I and Spaceballs. More recently he has had a smash hit on Broadway with the musical adaptation of his first film, The Producers. He was married to the actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death in 2005.

Brooks is a member of the short list of entertainers with the distinction of having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award. Three of his films ranked in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 comedy films of all-time: Blazing Saddles at number 6, The Producers at number 11, and Young Frankenstein at number 13.^[2]

Early life[link]

Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn, New York, a son of Maximilian Kaminsky and his wife Kate (née Brookman).^[3] His father's family were German Jews from the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (the modern Polish port of Gdansk); his mother's family were Ukrainian Jews from Kiev.^[4] He had three older brothers, Irving, Lenny and Bernie. His father died of kidney disease when Brooks was only two years old.^[5] Brooks has said of his father's death that "there's an outrage there. I may be angry at God, or at the world, for that. And I'm sure a lot of my comedy is based on anger and hostility. Growing up in Williamsburg, I learned to clothe it in comedy to spare myself problems - like a punch in the face."^[6]

Brooks was a small, sickly boy who was often bullied and picked on by his classmates.^[7] He was taught by Buddy Rich (who had also grown up in Williamsburg) to learn how to play the drums and started earning money at it when he was fourteen.^[6] Following high school, he spent a year at Brooklyn College as a psychology major before being drafted into the army.^[6] He attended the Army Specialized Training Program^[8] conducted at the Virginia Military Institute^[9] (although not actually as a VMI cadet) and served in the United States Army as a corporal during World War II, arriving in France weeks after the Battle of the Bulge.^[10]

Career[link]

[edit] Early career and Your Show of Shows

After World War II, Brooks started working in various Borscht Belt resorts and nightclubs in the Catskill Mountains as a drummer and pianist. Around this time he changed his professional name to "Mel Brooks" after being confused with the well-known Borscht Belt trumpet player Max Kaminsky.^[6] After a regular comic at one of the nightclubs was too sick to perform one night, Brooks started working as a stand-up comic, telling jokes and doing movie-star impressions. He also began acting in summer stock in Redbank, New Jersey and did some radio work.^[6] He eventually worked his way up to the comically aggressive job of Tummler (master entertainer) at Grossinger's, one of the Borscht Belt most famous resorts.^[6][11]

Brooks found more rewarding work behind the scenes, becoming a comedy writer for television. In 1949 his friend Sid Caesar hired Brooks to write jokes for the NBC series The Admiral Broadway Revue, paying him $50 a week. In 1950, Caesar created the revolutionary variety comedy series Your Show of Shows and hired Brooks as a writer along with Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, Danny Simon, and head writer Mel Tolkin.^[6] The show was an immediate hit and has been influential to all variety and sketch-comedy TV shows since. Carl Reiner, as creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show, based Morey Amsterdam's character Buddy Sorell on Brooks. Likewise the 1982 film My Favorite Year is loosely based on Brooks' experiences as a writer on the show and an encounter with aging Hollywood actor Errol Flynn. Neil Simon's 1993 play Laughter on the 23rd Floor is also loosely based on the production of the show, and the character Ira Stone is based on Brooks.

Your Show of Shows would end in 1954 when performer Imogene Coca left to host her own show. Caesar then created Caesar's Hour with most of the same cast and writers (including Brooks and adding Larry Gelbart). Caesar's Hour ran from 1954 until 1957.

In 1957 Brooks wrote the book for his first Broadway musical Shinbone Alley.

[edit] The 2000 Year Old Man and Get Smart

Brooks and co-writer Reiner had become fast friends and began to casually improvise comedy routines when they weren't working. Reiner would play the straight man interviewer who would set Brooks up as anything from a Tibetan Monk to an astronaut. As Reiner explained, "In the evening we'd go to a party and I'd pick a character for him to play. I never told him what it was going to be."^[6] On one of these occasions Reiner's suggestion was a 2000 Year Old Man who had witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (who "came in the store but never bought anything"), had been married several hundred times and had "over forty-two thousand children, and not one comes to visit me." At first Brooks and Reiner would only perform the routine for friends but by the late 1950s had gained a cult status in New York City. Kenneth Tynan saw the comedy duo perform at a party in 1959 and wrote that Brooks "was the most original comic improvisor I had ever seen."^[6]

In 1960, Brooks moved from New York to Hollywood. He and Reiner began performing the 2000 Year Old Man act on the Steve Allen Show. Their performances led to the release of the comedy album 2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks that sold over a million copies in 1961.^[6] They eventually expanded their routine with two more albums in 1961 and 1962, a revival in 1973, a 1975 animated TV special and a reunion album in 1998.

Brooks adapted the 2000 Year Old Man character to create the 2500 Year Old Brewmaster for Ballantine Beer in the 1960s. Interviewed by Dick Cavett in a series of ads, the Brewmaster (in a German accent, as opposed to the 2000 Year Old Man's Jewish voice) said he was inside the original Trojan horse and "could've used a six-pack of fresh air."^[12]

In 1962 Brooks wrote the Broadway musical All American. Brooks wrote the play with lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse. The show starred Ray Bolger as a southern science Professor at a large university who uses the principles of engineering on the college's football team and the team begins to win games. The show was directed by Joshua Logan, who script doctored the second act and added a gay subtext to the plot. The show ran for 80 performances and received two Tony Award nominations.

In 1963 Brooks was involved in the animated short film The Critic, a satire of arty, esoteric cinema, conceived by Brooks and directed by Ernest Pintoff. Brooks supplied running commentary as the baffled moviegoer trying to make sense of the obscure visuals. The short film won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film.

In 1965, Brooks teamed up with comedy writer Buck Henry to create a comedic TV show about a bumbling James Bond inspired spy. Brooks explains, "I was sick of looking at all those nice sensible situation comedies. They were such distortions of life...I wanted to do a crazy, unreal comic-strip kind of thing about something besides a family. No one had ever done a show about an idiot before. I decided to be the first."^[13] The show that Brooks and Henry created was Get Smart, starring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86. This series ran from 1965 until 1970, although Brooks was not involved with its production after the pilot episode.^[14] Get Smart was highly rated for most of its production and won seven Emmy Awards,^[15] including Outstanding Comedy Series in 1968 and 1969.

Brooks had married actress Anne Bancroft in 1964 and the two lived together in New York City.

Early career as a film director[link]

For several years Brooks had been toying with a bizarre and unconventional idea about a musical comedy of Adolf Hitler. Brooks explored the idea as a novel and a play before finally writing a script.^[6] Eventually he was able to find two producers to fund the show, Joseph E. Levine and Sidney Glazier, and made his first feature film, The Producers, in 1968. The film starred Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn, Kenneth Mars, Christopher Hewett, Andréas Voutsinas and Lee Meredith with music by John Morris.

The Producers begins when Max Bialystock (Mostel), a once-successful Broadway producer who whores himself out to elderly women in order to make ends meet and produce plays, meets Leo Bloom (Wilder), a lonely and hyper-hysterical accountant. While Leo is looking over Max's books, he realizes that a producer could make more money producing a flop than a hit simply by raising more money than needed and then ensuring the play would not make any profits to pay back the backers. Max and Leo search for the worst play ever written, which turns out to be Springtime for Hitler by Franz Liebkind (Mars). The play is described as "a gay romp with Adolph and Eva through Berchtesgaden". It turns into a musical comedy under Max and Leo's leadership. After assembling an equally abysmal director, Roger De Bris (Hewett), and a brain-dead hippie to play Hitler (Shawn), Max and Leo expect to become rich with the anticipated flop. However, the audience interprets the play as a satire making it a huge comedic hit. Not wanting to go to jail, Max, Leo and Franz decide to blow up the theater but are caught in the explosion and sentenced to prison, where they promptly produce a musical revue using the prison inmates.^[6]

The Producers was so brazen in its satire that major studios would not touch it, nor would many exhibitors. Brooks finally found an independent distributor who released it as an art film, a specialized attraction. In 1968 Brooks received an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film beating such writers as Stanley Kubrick and John Cassavetes. The Producers became a smash underground hit, first on the nationwide college circuit, then in revivals and on home video. Brooks later turned it into a musical, which became hugely successful on Broadway receiving an unprecedented twelve Tony awards.

With the moderate financial success of the film The Producers, Glazier financed Brooks' next film in 1970, The Twelve Chairs. Loosely based on a Russian 1928 novel The Twelve Chairs by Ilf and Petrov about greedy materialism in post-Revolutionary Russia, the film stars Ron Moody, Frank Langella and Dom DeLuise as three men individually searching for a fortune in diamonds hidden in a set of twelve antique chairs. Brooks himself has a cameo as an alcoholic ex-serf who "yearns for the regular beatings of yesteryear." The film was shot in Yugoslavia with a budget of $1.5 million. The film received poor reviews and was not financially successful.^[6]

Success as a Hollywood director[link]

Brooks then wrote an adaptation of Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, but was unable to sell the idea to any studio and believed that his career was over. In 1972 Brooks met agent David Begelman who helped him set up a deal with Warner Brothers to hire Brooks (as well as Richard Pryor, Andrew Bergman, Norman Steinberg and Al Uger) as a script doctor for an unproduced script called Tex-X. Eventually Brooks was hired as director for what would become Blazing Saddles, his third film.^[6]

Blazing Saddles starred Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, Madeline Kahn, Alex Karras and Brooks himself with cameos by Dom DeLuise and Count Basie. The film had music by Brooks and John Morris and received a modest budget of $2.6 million. This film is a satire on the Western film genre and references older films such as Destry Rides Again, High Noon, Once Upon a Time in the West and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre as well as a surreal scene towards the end of the film referencing the extravagant musicals of Busby Berkeley.

In the film, the small town of Rock Ridge is in the pathway of the new railroad being built. In order to buy the land on the route more cheaply, the corrupt State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Korman) and the dim-witted State Governor (Brooks) plot to drive the townspeople out by appointing as their new sheriff a black man, Bart (Little). The racist townspeople are slow to accept Sheriff Bart, but with the help of the drunken ex-gunslinger the Waco Kid (Wilder) he is able to rid the town of all crime and problems and wins the people over. Realizing that they have to do something to destroy Bart's reputation, Lamarr sends the saloon singer Lili von Shtupp (Kahn) to seduce and corrupt Bart. However, she ends up falling in love with him, so as a final effort to drive the townspeople away, Lamarr organizes a raid to burn the town to the ground. But, under Bart's leadership, the townspeople are able to fight off Lamarr's men, and in the ensuing fight the film itself spills over into other films being shot on the Warner brother lot, such as a musical directed by the temperamental Dom DeLuise character. In the end the townspeople are saved and Sheriff Bart rides off into the sunset.

Upon its release, Blazing Saddles was the second highest grossing film, domestically, of 1974 earning $119.5 million worldwide. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a success with younger audiences. It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Madeline Kahn, Best Film Editing, and Best Music, Original Song. The film won the Writers Guild of America Award for "Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen"^[16] and in 2006 it was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.^[17] Brooks has said that the film "has to do with love more than anything else. I mean when that black guy rides into that Old Western town and even a little old lady says 'Up yours nigger!', you know that his heart is broken. So its really the story of that heart being mended."^[6]

When Gene Wilder replaced Gig Young as the Waco Kid, he did so only if Brooks agreed that his next film would be an idea that Wilder had been working on: a spoof of the old Universal Frankenstein films.^[18] After the filming of Blazing Saddles was completed, Wilder and Brooks began writing the script for Young Frankenstein and shot the film in the spring of 1974. It starred Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman and Kenneth Mars with Gene Hackman in a memorable cameo role. Composer John Morris again provided the music score and Universal Monsters film special effects veteran Kenneth Strickfaden worked on the film.

Young Frankenstein stars Wilder as the young American scientist Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced "Fronk-en-steen") who travels to Transylvania to visit his famous grandfather's castle and laboratory. With the help of hunchback servant Igor (Feldman), beautiful assistant Inga (Garr) and suspicious housekeeper Frau Blücher (Leachman), Frankenstein discovers his grandfather's notebooks and attempts to continue his work in reanimation. He builds his creation, the monster (Boyle) but Igor accidentally obtains an abnormal brain making the monster violent and uncontrollable. When the monster escapes, he terrorizes the countryside before Dr. Frankenstein can lure him back to the castle and civilize him, ending in a sophisticated and humorous rendition of Irving Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz". The monster's violent tendencies come back and he is put in jail by Inspector Kemp (Mars). In the meantime, Dr. Frankenstein has begun a relationship with Inga just before his insufferable fiance Elizabeth (Kahn) arrives at the castle. The monster escapes from jail, kidnaps Elizabeth and seduces her to her great satisfaction. Dr. Frankenstein is able to get the monster back again and attempts a dangerous experiment sharing part of his own brain with the monster, which succeeds in civilizing him. In the end Frankenstein and Inga are happily married, as are Elizabeth and the monster.

Young Frankenstein was the third highest grossing film domestically of 1974, just behind Blazing Saddles. It earned $86 million worldwide and received two Academy Award nominations: Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay and Academy Award for Best Sound. It received some of the best reviews of Brooks' career and even critic Pauline Kael liked the film, saying that "Brooks makes a leap up as a director because, although the comedy doesn't build, he carries the story through...Brooks even has a satisfying windup, which makes this just about the only comedy of recent years that doesn't collapse."^[6]

In 1975, at the height of his movie career, Brooks tried TV again with When Things Were Rotten, a Robin Hood parody that lasted only 13 episodes. Nearly twenty years later, in response to the 1991 hit film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Brooks mounted another Robin Hood parody with Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Brooks's film resurrected several pieces of dialog from his TV series, as well as from earlier Brooks films.

In 1976, Brooks followed up his two hit films with an audacious idea: the first feature-length silent comedy in four decades. Silent Movie was written by Brooks and Ron Clark, starring Brooks in his first leading role, Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Sid Caesar, Bernadette Peters and, in cameo roles playing themselves: Paul Newman, Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minnelli, Anne Bancroft and ironically, Marcel Marceau, who uttered the film's only word of audible dialogue: "Non!"

In the film Brooks plays Mel Funn, a recovered alcoholic and once successful director, who convinces the Chief of his studio (Caesar) that a silent film could still be profitable and will save the studio from being taken over by the evil conglomerate Engulf & Devour (a thinly disguised reference to Gulf+Western's takeover of Paramount Pictures). With help from his two assistants, DeLuise and Feldman, Funn enlists several well known movie stars to appear in the film thus assuring its success. Worried that Funn's success will prevent their takeover, Engulf & Devour send the sexy nightclub singer Vilma Kaplan (Peters) to seduce and distract Funn. But Kaplan and Funn fall in love with each other and Funn is able to complete the film. In the end the film is a hit with audiences.^[6]

Although not as successful as his previous two films, Silent Movie was a hit and grossed $36 million. Later that year Brooks was named number 5 on a list of the Top Ten Box Office Stars.^[6]

In 1977, Brooks made a parody of the films of Alfred Hitchcock in High Anxiety. The film was written by Brooks, Ron Clark, Rudy De Luca and Barry Levinson and was the first movie produced by Brooks himself. It starred Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Korman, Ron Carey, Howard Morris and Dick Van Patten. The film satirizes such Hitchcock classic films as Vertigo, Spellbound, Psycho, The Birds, North by Northwest, Dial M for Murder and Suspicion.

Brooks stars as Professor Richard H. (for Harpo) Thorndyke, a Nobel Prize winning psychologist who also happens to suffer from high anxiety. Thorndyke is appointed the director of the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, which also employs sadistic Nurse Diesel (Leachman) and masochistic Dr. Montague (Korman). Things at the hospital are not what they seem and as Thorndyke becomes increasingly suspicious of Diesel and Montague, he is approached by the mysterious Hitchcockian-blonde Victoria Brisbane (Kahn), whose father is a patient at the hospital. Thorndyke and Brisbane uncover a plot by Diesel and Montague to imprison wealthy patients for profit with Thorndyke framed for a murder. On the run as a Hitchcockian Wrong Man, Thorndyke is able to rescue Brisbane's father and clear himself of all crimes, marrying Brisbane in the end.^[6] The film was another modest hit for Brooks, earning $31 million and received mixed reviews.

Later film career[link]

Brooks in c. February 1984

By 1980, Siskel and Ebert called Mel Brooks and Woody Allen "the two most successful comedy directors in the world today ... America's two funniest filmmakers."^[19] That year, Brooks produced the dramatic film The Elephant Man (directed by David Lynch). Knowing that anyone seeing a poster reading "Mel Brooks presents The Elephant Man" would expect a comedy, he set up the company Brooksfilms. Brooksfilms has since produced a number of non-comedy films, including David Cronenberg's The Fly, Frances, and 84 Charing Cross Road, starring Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft, along with comedies, including Richard Benjamin's My Favorite Year, which was partially based on Mel Brooks' real life. Brooks sought to purchase the rights to 84 Charing Cross Road for his wife, Anne Bancroft for many years. He successfully obtained the rights to the movie and presented them to her as an anniversary gift.

In 1981 Brooks joked that the only genres that he had not spoofed were historical epics and Biblical spectacles.^[6] History of the World Part I was a tongue-in-cheek look at human culture from the Dawn of Man to the French Revolution. The film was written, produced and directed by Brooks with narration by Orson Welles. It starred Brooks, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Ron Carey, Gregory Hines, Mary-Margaret Humes, Pamela Stephenson, Spike Milligan, Sid Caesar and John Hurt.

The episodic film begins with "The Dawn of Man" starring Sid Caesar as a Caveman who discovers fire and music. Next it covers "The Old Testament" where Brooks plays a bumbling Moses who breaks one of God's tablets thus denying humans of 5 of the original 15 commandments. In "The Roman Emperor", Brooks plays a stand-up philosopher who, along with a Vestal Virgin (Humes) and a slave (Hines), gets into trouble with Emperor Nero (DeLuise) and Empress Nympho (Kahn) but they manage to escape unharmed. Eventually Brooks gets a job as the waiter at the Last Supper of Jesus (Hurt). In "The Spanish Inquisition", Brooks portrays the violent and tragic Inquisition of Jews as a grandiose Busby Berkeley-like musical number. In "The French Revolution" Brooks plays both King Louis and the King's look-a-like "piss boy". He manages to help Mademoiselle Rimbaud (Stephenson) save her father (Milligan) from prison. The film's final section, "Coming Attractions", is a fake trailer for the sequel to the film and includes "Hitler on Ice" and "Jews in Space".

This film was another modest financial hit, earning $31 million. It received mixed critical reviews. Critic Pauline Kael, who for years had been critical of Brooks, said "Either you get stuck thinking about the bad taste or you let yourself laugh at the obscenity in the humor as you do Bunuel's perverse dirty jokes."^[6]

As part of the film's soundtrack, Brooks, then aged 55, recorded a rap entitled "It's Good to Be the King", a parody of Louis XVI and the French Revolution. It was released as a single and became a surprise dance hit in the United States.

In 1983 Brooks produced and starred in (but did not write or direct) a remake of the classic 1942 Ernst Lubitsch film. To Be or Not to Be was directed by Alan Johnson and starred Brooks, Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Tim Matheson, Jose Ferrer and Christopher Lloyd. The film was not a financial success, earning only $13 million.

The film spawned a highly controversial single that was featured as part of the film's soundtrack album (although not in the film itself) - "To Be Or Not To Be" (The Hitler Rap). The song - satirizing German society in the 1940s with Brooks playing Hitler - was an unlikely hit, peaking at #12 on the UK Singles Chart in February 1984 and #3 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report) that same year.

The second movie Brooks directed in the 80s came in 1987 in the form of Spaceballs, a parody of science fiction, mainly Star Wars. The film starred Bill Pullman, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Daphne Zuniga, Dick Van Patten, Joan Rivers, Dom DeLuise and Brooks himself.

In the 1990s Brooks directed Life Stinks in 1991, Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993 and Dracula: Dead and Loving It in 1995. Life Stinks was a financial and critical failure, but is notable as being the only film that Brooks directed that is neither a parody nor a film about other films or theater (The Twelve Chairs was a parody of the original novel). It is also notable as being Brooks' last leading role in a film (as of 2011). Gene Siskel put Robin Hood: Men in Tights on his "Worst of 1993" list, saying that Brooks has "clearly lost his way" in comedy.

Brooks also had a vocal role in the 2005 animated film Robots. He then worked on an animated series sequel to Spaceballs called Spaceballs: The TV Series, which premiered on September 21, 2008 on G4 TV.

Musicals[link]

One of his most recent successes has been the transference of his film The Producers to the Broadway stage. 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 adaptation/remake with actors Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane reprising their stage roles, in addition to new cast members Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell. In early April 2006, Brooks began composing the score to a Broadway musical adaptation of Young Frankenstein, which he says is "perhaps the best movie [he] ever made." The world premiere was performed at Seattle's most historic theater (originally built as a movie palace), The Paramount Theater, between August 7, 2007, and September 1, 2007 after which it opened on Broadway at the former Foxwoods Theater (then the Hilton Theater), New York, on October 11, 2007. It earned mixed reviews from the critics.

Brooks joked about the concept of a musical adaptation of Blazing Saddles in the final number in Young Frankenstein, in which the full company sings, "next year, Blazing Saddles!" In 2010, Mel Brooks confirmed this, saying that the musical could be finished within a year. No creative team or plan has been announced.^[20]

Legacy[link]

Brooks in April 2010

Brooks is one of the few artists who have received an Oscar, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy. He was awarded his first Grammy for Best Spoken Comedy Album in 1999 for his recording of The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000 with Carl Reiner. His two other Grammys came in 2002 for Best Musical Show Album for the soundtrack of The Producers and for Best Long Form Music Video for the DVD "Recording the Producers - A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks". He won his first of four Emmy awards in 1967 for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Variety for a Sid Caesar special and went on to win three consecutive Emmys in 1997, 1998, and 1999 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his role of Uncle Phil on Mad About You. He won his three Tony awards in 2001 for his work on the musical, The Producers for Best Musical, Best Original Musical Score, and Best Book of a Musical. Additionally, he won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award for Young Frankenstein. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted #50 of the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. Three of Brooks's films are on the American Film Institute's list of funniest American films: Blazing Saddles (#6), The Producers (#11), and Young Frankenstein (#13).

Brooks developed a repertory company of sorts for his film work: performers with three or more of Brooks' films (The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of the World: Part I, Spaceballs, Life Stinks, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It) to their credit include Gene Wilder, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Ron Carey, Dick Van Patten and Andréas Voutsinas. Dom DeLuise appeared in six of Brooks's 11 original films, the only person with more appearances being Brooks himself.

Brooks and his wife Anne Bancroft acted together in Silent Movie and To Be or Not to Be and Bancroft also had a bit part in the 1995 film Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Years later, the couple appeared as themselves in the fourth season finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm, spoofing the finale of The Producers. It is reported that Bancroft encouraged Brooks (after an idea suggested by David Geffen) to take The Producers to Broadway where it became an enormous success.

In interviews broadcast on WABC radio, Brooks has discussed with NYC radio personality Mark Simone the possibilities of turning other works from his creative oeuvre (such as the movie Blazing Saddles) into future musical productions. Specifically, in a conversation airing March 1, 2008, he and Simone speculated on what show tunes might be incorporated into a theatrical adaptation of the Get Smart property.

On December 5, 2009 Brooks was one of five recipients of the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.^[21]

On April 23, 2010 Brooks was awarded the 2,406th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[22]

Personal life[link]

Brooks with wife Anne Bancroft at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.

Mel with son Max Brooks in April 2010

Brooks was married to Florence Baum from 1953 to 1962. Their marriage ended in divorce. Mel and Florence had three children, Stephanie, Nicky, and Eddie.^{[citation needed]}

Brooks was married to the actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death from uterine cancer on June 6, 2005. They met at a rehearsal for the Perry Como Variety Show in 1961 and married three years later, August 5, at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau. Their son, Max Brooks, was born in 1972. In 2010, Brooks credited Bancroft as being the guiding force behind his involvement in developing The Producers and Young Frankenstein for the musical theater, citing an early meeting as "From that day, until her death on June 5, 2005, we were glued together."^[23]

Work[link]

Brooks at the White House for the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors

Writer/director[link]

• The Producers (1968) (Academy Award, best original screenplay)
• The Twelve Chairs (1970) (also actor)
• Blazing Saddles (1974) (also actor)
• Young Frankenstein (1974)
• Silent Movie (1976) (also actor)
• High Anxiety (1977) (also actor/producer)
• History of the World, Part I (1981) (also actor/producer)
• Spaceballs (1987) (also actor/producer)
• Life Stinks (1991) (also actor/producer)
• Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) (also actor/producer)
• Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) (also actor/producer)

Theatre[link]

• Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952 (1952) (sketches for a revue)
• Shinbone Alley (1957) (co-book-writer)
• All-American (1962) (book-writer)
• The Producers (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, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical)
• Young Frankenstein (2007) (composer, lyricist, co-book-writer, producer)

Other credits[link]

• Your Show of Shows (TV) (1950–1954) (writer)
• New Faces of 1952 (Broadway) (1952) (writer) and "New Faces", the 1954 film version (writer)
• The Critic (created and narrated, won Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film) (1963)
• Get Smart (TV) (1965–1970) (co-creator, writer)
• The Electric Company (TV) (1971–1977) (voice of recurring little cartoon man who asks: "Who's the dummy writing this show?!")
• Hollywood Squares (1972) (Guest star)
• When Things Were Rotten (1975) (co-created, writer)
• The Muppet Movie (1979) (Special Guest Star-Mad Scientist Professor Max Krassman)
• The Elephant Man (1980) (uncredited executive producer)
• To Be or Not to Be (1983) (actor, producer)
• The Fly (1986) (uncredited producer)
• The Fly II (1989) (uncredited producer)
• The Nutt House (1989) (co-creator)
• The Tracey Ullman Show (1990) (actor-Buzz Schlanger)
• Look Who's Talking Too (1990) (voice of Mr. Toilet Man)
• Frasier (1993) (voice of Tom)
• The Little Rascals (1994) (actor-Mr. Welling)
• Silence of the Hams (1994) (actor-Checkout Guest)
• The Simpsons (1995, "Homer vs. Patty and Selma") (voice-himself)
• Caesar's Writers (1996) (himself, panel member)^[24]
• Mad About You (TV) (1996–1999) (actor-Uncle Phil)
• The Prince of Egypt (1998) (uncredited, additional voices)
• Svitati (AKA Screw Loose) (1999) (actor-Jake Gordon)
• It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) (voice of Joe Snow)
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius: Season 2 (2003) (voice of Santa Claus)
• Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks (2003–2007) (voice of Wiley the Sheep)
• Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 4 (2004) (actor)
• Robots (2005) (voice of Bigweld)
• The Producers (2005) (writer, producer, cameo as himself)
• Spaceballs: The Animated Series (2008) (writer, producer, voice)
• Get Smart (2008) (Consultant)
• The 2000 Year Old Man: The Complete History (2009) DVD ^[25]
• The Wizard of Oz (2012) (actor-The Wizard of Oz)^{[citation needed]}

Rotten Tomatoes ratings[link]

Collaborations[link]

	The Producers	Twelve Chairs	Blazing Saddles	Young Frankenstein	Silent Movie	High Anxiety	History of the World, Part I	Spaceballs	Life Stinks	Robin Hood: Men in Tights	Dracula: Dead and Loving It
Carol Arthur			N		N					N	N
Anne Bancroft			N		N						N
Mark Blankfield										N	N
Mel Brooks		N	N		N	N	N	N	N	N	N
Sid Caesar					N		N
Charlie Callas					N	N	N				N
Ron Carey					N	N	N
Megan Cavanagh										N	N
Ron Clark					N	N			N
Dom DeLuise		N	N		N		N	N		N
Liam Dunn			N	N	N
Marty Feldman				N	N
Sandy Helberg						N	N	N
John Hurt							N	N
Madeline Kahn			N	N		N	N
Harvey Korman			N			N	N				N
Cloris Leachman				N		N	N
Barry Levinson					N	N	N
Rudy De Luca					N	N	N	N	N	N	N
Kenneth Mars	N			N
John Morris	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
Howard Morris						N	N		N
Dick Van Patten						N		N		N
Robert Ridgely			N			N			N	N
Andréas Voutsinas	N	N					N
Albert Whitlock						N	N
Gene Wilder	N		N	N
Amy Yasbeck										N	N

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Parish, James Robert. It's Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks (2007) Wiley ISBN 0-471-75267-3

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mel Brooks

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mel Brooks

• Mel Brooks at the Internet Broadway Database
• Mel Brooks at the Internet Movie Database
• Mel Brooks - Box Office Data Movie Director at The Numbers
• Mel Brooks - Box Office Data Movie Star at The Numbers
• "The Films of Mel Brooks", video compilation of film clips, 5 minutes
• Interview with Brooks on NPR's Fresh Air (March 16, 2005)
• TonyAwards.com Interview with Mel Brooks at Tony Awards site
• Interview with Mel Brooks biographer James Robert Parish
• Photographs and literature
• Mel Brooks at Emmys.com