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Biography #2 (for Robots)

Mel Brooks, a director, producer, writer and actor, is the creator of such comedy film classics as Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety and Silent Movie.

Brooks received three 2001 Tony Awards for The Producers: The New Mel Brooks Musical (Best Score, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Musical). In addition, he won two Grammy Awards: Best Musical Show Album for The Producers and Best Long Form Music Video for "Recording 'The Producers' - A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks."

Brooks began his television career during its Golden Age, as a writer for Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows in 1951. In 1955 and 1957, Brooks received Emmy nominations (with others) for Best Comedy Writing for Caesar's Hour, and in 1956 he was nominated (with others) for Best Writing for a Variety Show or Situation Comedy.

In 1952, Brooks wrote, with Joe Darion, sketches for Leonard Sillman's Broadway smash hit revue "New Faces of 1952, and in 1957 Brooks wrote the book for the Broadway musical Shinbone Alley, which starred Eartha Kitt. In 1962, he wrote the book for the Broadway musical All American, starring Ray Bolger.

In the 1960s, Brooks teamed with Carl Reiner to write and perform The 2000 Year Old Man albums, which became immediate bestsellers. In 1960 and 1961, Brooks and Reiner received Grammy nominations for Best Spoken Word: Comedy album, for The 2000 Year Old Man, and for Best Comedy Performance for 2000 and One Years, respectively. In 1997, Brooks and Reiner again teamed, this time for The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000, released as both a book and a compact disc; the CD won a Grammy in 1998 for Best Spoken Word: Comedy album.

In 1964 Brooks wrote and narrated The Critic, a short satire on avant-garde art films, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject. The following year, Brooks teamed with Buck Henry to create Get Smart, the long running television series starring Don Adams as bumbling Agent 86. Brooks, along with others, received an Emmy for Outstanding Writing Achievement in a Comedy-Variety Special for "The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special."

In 1968 Brooks wrote and directed his first feature film, The Producers, starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, which earned Brooks an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Brooks went on to create a remarkable string of motion picture comedies: he wrote, directed and acted in the The Twelve Chairs (1970); co-wrote, directed and acted in Blazing Saddles (1974), for which he was nominated, along with John Morris, for Best Title Song; wrote and directed Young Frankenstein (1974); co-wrote, directed and starred in Silent Movie (1976); co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in High Anxiety (1977); wrote, directed, produced and starred in History of the World, Part I (1981); produced and starred in To Be or Not to Be (1983); co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in the hit sci-fi spoof Spaceballs; co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in Life Stinks (1991); co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993); and co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995).

For three successive seasons, 1997-99, Brooks won Emmy Awards for his role as Uncle Phil on the hit comedy series Mad About You.

Brooks is in an elite group, with Helen Hayes, John Gielgud, Rita Moreno, Audrey Hepburn, Marvin Hamlisch and Mike Nichols, as one of only seven artists/entertainers to earn all four major entertainment prizes: the Tony, Emmy, Grammy and Oscar.

His visionary film company, Brooksfilms Limited, founded in 1980, has produced some of America's most distinguished films: David Lynch's The Elephant Man, starring John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins, with Hurt receiving one of the film's eight Oscar nominations; David Cronenberg's memorable hit The Fly, starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis; Frances, for which Jessica Lange and Kim Stanley received Oscar nominations; Richard Benjamin's My Favorite Year, for which Peter O'Toole earned an Oscar nomination; and 84 Charing Cross Road, for which Anne Bancroft, starring opposite Anthony Hopkins, won the British Academy Award.

Bio courtesy Fox for "Robots" (12-Mar-2005)


Biography #3

United States film director, born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York best known as a director of broad film farces and film parodies.

He started out in showbusiness as a stand-up comic, before becoming a comedy writer for television, working on Your Show of Shows. With Buck Henry, he created the successful TV series Get Smart. He later moved into film, working as an actor, director, writer and producer. His most recent success has been a transfer of his film, The Producers, to the Broadway stage.

Brooks is one of a select group who have received an Oscar, Emmy (as both an actor and writer), Tony and Grammy.

Article text released under CC-BY-SA. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mel Brooks" (09-Apr-2003)