50 Fun Facts About Mel Brooks

What was Mel Brooks's birth surname?

Mel Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky in 1926; he took Brooks by shortening his mother's maiden name, Brookman, partly to avoid confusion with the jazz trumpeter Max Kaminsky.

In which New York borough was Mel Brooks born and raised?

Mel Brooks was born in Brooklyn in 1926, in Brownsville, and raised in the borough's Williamsburg neighbourhood; his father died of kidney disease when Mel was two.

Which jazz drummer taught the teenage Mel Brooks to play drums?

Buddy Rich, the jazz drummer, gave Mel Brooks drum lessons as a teenager; Brooks earned money as a drummer from 14 and got his first comedy break filling in for a sick emcee.

In which December 1944 German offensive did Mel Brooks serve as a combat engineer?

Brooks, a corporal combat engineer, saw action in the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944–January 1945), clearing mines and booby-trapped buildings; he says he answered German loudspeaker songs by singing Al Jolson through a bullhorn.

Mel Brooks began his writing career on which comedian's 1950s TV show?

Brooks joined Sid Caesar's writing staff on Your Show of Shows (1950–54) and followed him to Caesar's Hour, after the two had met in the Catskills when Brooks was a teenage tummler.

With which collaborator did Brooks create the comedy sketch The 2000 Year Old Man?

Carl Reiner played the deadpan interviewer to Brooks's 2000 Year Old Man, a routine they improvised at parties in the 1950s; their album The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000 won a 1999 Grammy.

Which spy-spoof sitcom did Brooks co-create with Buck Henry in 1965?

Get Smart ran on NBC from 1965, with Don Adams as bumbling Agent 86; Brooks said no one had ever done a show about an idiot before, so he decided to be the first.

Agent 86 in Brooks's 1965 spy-spoof sitcom works for which secret agency?

Agent 86 works for CONTROL, the Washington spy agency locked in battle with KAOS, 'the international organization of evil'; Don Adams played Agent 86 and Barbara Feldon Agent 99.

For which film, his directorial debut, did Mel Brooks win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay?

The Producers (1967) was Brooks's first film as director; its script won him the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the April 1969 ceremony, beating 2001: A Space Odyssey.

What is the title of the deliberately terrible musical-within-the-film in Brooks's 1967 debut?

Springtime for Hitler is the sure-fire flop Bialystock and Bloom stage; Brooks first blurted the title as a joke at a 1962 press conference when asked what he would do next.

Which two actors starred as Bialystock and Bloom in Brooks's original 1967 film?

Zero Mostel played Max Bialystock and Gene Wilder the nervous accountant Leo Bloom, whose name nods to Leopold Bloom of Joyce's Ulysses; Wilder earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for the role.

Brooks's second film, The Twelve Chairs (1970), is based on a Russian novel by which writing duo?

The Twelve Chairs adapts the 1928 Soviet satirical novel by Ilf and Petrov (Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov); Brooks cameos as Tikon, an ex-serf who 'yearns for the regular beatings of yesteryear'.

Which comedian was among the co-writers of Blazing Saddles, whom Brooks called 'very brave and very far-out'?

Richard Pryor was one of the credited writers of Blazing Saddles; Brooks wanted him to play Bart, but the studio would not cast him, so Pryor stayed on as a writer.

Who plays Sheriff Bart in Blazing Saddles?

Cleavon Little plays Sheriff Bart, the railroad worker appointed sheriff to drive the townsfolk off their land; Little had won the 1970 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for Purlie.

What is the name of the town the railroad must pass through in Blazing Saddles?

Rock Ridge is the frontier town the villains want emptied so the railroad can be rerouted through it; nearly every citizen is surnamed Johnson, and they build a fake Rock Ridge as a decoy.

Which bandleader plays 'April in Paris' in the middle of the desert in Blazing Saddles?

Count Basie and his orchestra appear playing 'April in Paris' in the desert as Bart gallops past, one of the film's deliberate anachronisms alongside Slim Pickens's 'Wide World of Sports' line.

Which two roles does Mel Brooks play in Blazing Saddles?

Brooks plays the lecherous Governor William J. Le Petomane and a Yiddish-speaking Indian chief; the film cost $2.6 million and grossed about $119 million in North America.

On what condition did Gene Wilder agree to replace Gig Young in Blazing Saddles?

They wrote Young Frankenstein as soon as Blazing Saddles wrapped and shot it in spring 1974.

Who plays the monster in Young Frankenstein?

Peter Boyle plays the Monster, complete with a zipper in his neck; his top-hat-and-tails 'Puttin' on the Ritz' duet with Wilder is the film's showpiece.

How does Frederick Frankenstein insist his surname be pronounced at the start of Young Frankenstein?

Frederick insists on 'Fronkensteen' to distance himself from his infamous grandfather's work; Marty Feldman's Igor retaliates by insisting his own name is pronounced 'Eye-gor'.

What is the label on the brain Igor accidentally brings back for the monster in Young Frankenstein?

The jar is labelled 'Abnormal' (Igor later claims it belonged to 'Abby Normal'); he was supposed to bring back the brain of the 'scientist and saint' Hans Delbrück but dropped it.

Which Oscar-winning actor makes a cameo as the blind hermit in Young Frankenstein?

Gene Hackman, a tennis friend of Wilder's, asked for the uncredited part of the blind hermit, who scalds the Monster with soup and lights his thumb instead of his cigar.

Which two science-fiction awards did Young Frankenstein win, unusually for a comedy?

Young Frankenstein won both the Hugo and the Nebula for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1975, a rare double for a comedy; it was also Oscar-nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound.

In Silent Movie (1976), who speaks the film's only audible word of dialogue?

Marcel Marceau, the celebrated mime, says 'Non!' when asked to appear in a silent film, the only spoken word; Burt Reynolds, Liza Minnelli and James Caan play themselves.

High Anxiety (1977) is Brooks's parody of which director?

High Anxiety spoofs Alfred Hitchcock, with Brooks as a Nobel-winning psychiatrist in set pieces lifted from Spellbound, Vertigo, Psycho and The Birds; Hitchcock sent Brooks a case of wine in thanks.

Which 1980 David Lynch film did Mel Brooks produce, keeping his name off the poster so audiences wouldn't expect comedy?

The Elephant Man (1980) was a Brooksfilms production; Brooks hired Lynch after seeing Eraserhead and kept his own name off the credits so audiences would not expect a comedy. It earned eight Oscar nominations.

Which 1986 David Cronenberg horror film was produced by Brooksfilms?

The Fly (1986), with Jeff Goldblum as the scientist who fuses with a housefly, was a Brooksfilms production; Brooks told Cronenberg, 'When it comes to gore, extreme whatever, don't hold back.'

How many roles does Mel Brooks play in History of the World, Part I?

Brooks plays five roles: Moses, Comicus the stand-up philosopher, Torquemada, King Louis XVI and Jacques the garçon de pisse; Orson Welles narrates.

History of the World, Part I plays on an unfinished multi-volume history by which Elizabethan figure?

The title nods to Sir Walter Raleigh's The History of the World, written during his imprisonment in the Tower of London and published in 1614 with only its first volume finished.

On which streaming service did the series History of the World, Part II premiere in 2023?

History of the World, Part II premiered on Hulu on 6 March 2023 as an eight-episode sketch series, with Brooks narrating and co-creating alongside Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes and Ike Barinholtz.

Which 1983 Ernst Lubitsch remake starred Brooks alongside his wife?

To Be or Not to Be (1983) remade Lubitsch's 1942 comedy about Polish actors outwitting the Nazis; Alan Johnson directed, and Charles Durning earned an Oscar nomination as Colonel Erhardt.

In Spaceballs, what kind of vehicle is Lone Starr's spaceship, Eagle 5?

Eagle 5 is a flying Winnebago motorhome with wings bolted to the camper; Bill Pullman's Lone Starr flies it with Barf, his half-man half-dog sidekick played by John Candy.

Which two roles does Mel Brooks play in Spaceballs?

Brooks plays President Skroob, the corrupt leader of Planet Spaceball (Skroob is an anagram of Brooks), and Yogurt, the diminutive Yoda spoof who guards the power of the Schwartz.

What was George Lucas's one condition for letting Brooks parody Star Wars?

Lucas reportedly said, 'Your action figures are going to look like mine.'

Who plays the short-statured villain Dark Helmet in Spaceballs?

Rick Moranis, the SCTV alumnus, plays Dark Helmet, whose oversized helmet flips up to reveal his face and who 'can't breathe in this thing'; Dom DeLuise voices Pizza the Hutt.

Which future star made his film debut in Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)?

Dave Chappelle, then 19, made his film debut as Ahchoo, Robin's sidekick; Cary Elwes plays Robin, and the film leans on Kevin Costner's Prince of Thieves and the 1938 Errol Flynn version.

Which comic actor plays the title vampire in Brooks's Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)?

Leslie Nielsen plays Count Dracula, with Brooks as Van Helsing and Peter MacNicol as Renfield; the film grossed only $10.7 million against a $30 million budget.

How many Tony Awards did Brooks's 2001 Broadway musical win, setting a record?

Brooks's musical won 12 Tony Awards in 2001, a record, including Best Musical plus Best Book and Best Score for Brooks himself; Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick starred as Bialystock and Bloom.

For which sitcom did Brooks win three consecutive Emmys (1997-99) as Outstanding Guest Actor?

Brooks played Uncle Phil, Paul Buchman's eccentric uncle, on Mad About You, winning the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy in 1997, 1998 and 1999.

Mel Brooks was married to which Oscar-winning actress from 1964 until her death in 2005?

Anne Bancroft, Best Actress Oscar winner for The Miracle Worker (1962), met Brooks at a Perry Como Show rehearsal in 1961 and married him in 1964; their son Max Brooks wrote World War Z.

What is unusual about the handprints Mel Brooks made at the TCL Chinese Theatre in 2014?

He wore a prosthetic finger for the ceremony, a gag typical of the man.

What is the title of Mel Brooks's 2021 memoir?

All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business, published in November 2021 when Brooks was 95, recounts his career from Catskills tummler to Broadway; Brooks read the audiobook himself.

Lili Von Shtupp's saloon act in Blazing Saddles parodies which 1939 western?

Lili Von Shtupp's 'I'm Tired' number spoofs Marlene Dietrich's saloon singer Frenchy in Destry Rides Again (1939); Madeline Kahn earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for the role.

Which studio released Blazing Saddles in February 1974?

Warner Bros. released Blazing Saddles on 7 February 1974 after Brooks clashed with its executives over the campfire flatulence scene and Mongo punching out a horse; it grossed about $119 million.

Who wrote the original story treatment, first titled Tex X, that became Blazing Saddles?

Andrew Bergman wrote the Tex X treatment, for which Alan Arkin was hired to direct and James Earl Jones to play the sheriff before that version collapsed; Bergman stayed on as one of the film's credited writers.

Which retired film star sued the studio over Blazing Saddles' running parody of her name?

Hedy Lamarr sued the studio for $100,000, claiming the villain's name infringed her right to privacy; it settled out of court with an apology, and Brooks said he was flattered she had noticed.

Who was cast as Franz Liebkind in Brooks's debut but left to audition for The Graduate?

Dustin Hoffman begged Brooks to release him to audition for The Graduate, which won him the lead opposite Brooks's wife, and Kenneth Mars took over as the Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind.

Where was the 1931 Frankenstein lab equipment reused in Young Frankenstein being stored?

Kenneth Strickfaden, who built the electrical props for Universal's 1931 Frankenstein, had kept them in his garage; he lent them to the production, and Brooks shot the film in black and white to match the originals.

Which studio dropped Young Frankenstein over its budget and black-and-white photography?

Columbia Pictures, which had developed the script, balked at the budget and at Brooks's insistence on black and white, so the project moved to 20th Century Fox, which released it in December 1974.

Igor's line 'Walk this way' in Young Frankenstein inspired a hit song by which band?

Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way' (1975) took its title from the gag after Steven Tyler and Joe Perry saw the film during a recording break; the joke itself is an old vaudeville bit Brooks added on set.