28 Films and 1 Oscar: This Cinema Legend Celebrates 100 Years and Is Still Active!

Happy birthday to Mel Brooks, who celebrates his 100th birthday this year! Let's take a look back at his often-overlooked career in France.

On June 28, 2026, actor, director, and producer Mel Brooks celebrated his 100th birthday! Born in 1926 and still active at the time of writing, he is credited with several cult comedies in American cinema, including Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. However, it would be reductive to limit him to just these two films.

Early Days in the Shadows of Giants

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Gifted in music as a child, Melvin James Kaminsky adopted the stage name Mel Brooks during his teenage years to avoid being confused with trumpeter Max Kaminsky. During World War II, at the age of 18, he joined the U.S. Army in 1944 and landed in France in November of the same year, as part of the 78th Infantry Division.

During his service, he already performed as a comedian for the troops. Upon returning to the United States, he continued down this path. In 1949, he wrote for Sid Caesar's television shows "Admiral Broadway Revue" (1949), "Your Show of Shows" (1950-1954), and "Caesar's Hour" (1954-1957), and occasionally participated in films, often uncredited, such as Jerry Lewis's The Ladies Man (1961).

Get Smart and The Producers

Having left New York for Hollywood, Brooks created the parody spy series Get Smart, which marked its era and ran for 138 episodes from 1965 to 1970. During this time, he penned one of his classics: the musical The Producers (1967). In this provocative film, he depicts a corrupt producer and a unscrupulous accountant who stage a disastrous musical to ensure it flops and pocket a hefty sum. The subject? A tribute to Führer Adolf Hitler, written by a former Nazi.

Brooks's directorial debut, The Producers, was poorly distributed and became a flop. It would later become profitable through re-releases and new adaptations on stage and elsewhere. This was a tough blow for Brooks, who fortunately had Get Smart to bounce back. At the end of the series in 1970, he released his second feature film, The Twelve Chairs, followed by the film that would make him internationally known: Blazing Saddles (1974).

King of Comedy in Hollywood

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A parody western that breaks the fourth wall, the film sweeps everything in its path, grossing over $110 million on an estimated budget of $2.6 million! Almost a record: the same year, he also directed Young Frankenstein, which achieved nearly the same feat. Thanks to these two parodies, Mel Brooks became the king of laughter in Hollywood.

He took the opportunity to direct a silent film, Silent Movie (1976), and then High Anxiety (1977), in which he also appeared on camera. In 1981, he embarked on the ambitious History of the World, Part I (1981), which traces the dawn of humanity to the French Revolution, followed by Spaceballs (1987), which parodies Star Wars.

This was followed by Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), which mocks among others Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), which parodies the Dracula myth three years after Francis Ford Coppola's version.

The commercial failure of the latter film marked the end of Mel Brooks's directorial career, as he then focused on exploiting his catalog through animated series (Spaceballs) or remakes (The Producers, Get Smart).

100 Years and Still Projects Ahead!

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In 2023, at 97 years old, he picked up the pen again to write the sequel to History of the World, Part I as a series. Mel Brooks also serves as the narrator, earning him an Emmy nomination. Two projects have followed, are filmed, and will be released soon: the series Very Young Frankenstein, inspired by Young Frankenstein, and the film Spaceballs: The New One, a sequel to Spaceballs.

At 100 years old, Mel Brooks is busier than most people half his age. Marked by laughter, his life and career have brought him exemplary longevity, along with two Oscars: Best Original Screenplay for The Producers and a lifetime achievement award.