Mel Brooks Net Worth

Mel Brooks's Quotes

• Why should I indulge myself and do a David Lean-ish kind of film? I could do my little Jewish Brief Encounter (1945) and disguise it - shorten the noses. But it wouldn't be as much fun as delivering my dish of insanity.
• I cut my finger. That's tragedy. A man walks into an open sewer and dies. That's comedy.
• My movies rise below vulgarity.
• Critics can't even make music by rubbing their back legs together.
• Oh, I'm not a true genius. I'm a near genius. I would say I'm a short genius. I'd rather be tall and normal than a short genius.

Interesting Facts about Mel Brooks

1. Served as a corporal with the United States Army in North Africa during World War II, where one of his duties was defusing land mines before the infantry moved in.
2. His stage name is an adaptation of his mother's maiden name, Brookman.
3. His film The Producers (1967) was the inspiration for the title of the album "Achtung Baby" (1991) by the rock band U2.
4. He produced and wrote the music, lyrics, and book for the Broadway musical "The Producers" (2001), the musical version of his earlier movie The Producers (1967). The Broadway hit musical then lead to the musical movie The Producers (2005).
5. Brooks won an Oscar for the screenplay of The Producers (1967); three Emmys in a row (1997-1999) for his guest appearance as Uncle Phil in Mad About You (1992); three Tonys for "The Producers" - Best Musical, Original Music Score and Book (musical); and three Grammys - Best Spoken Comedy Album for "The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000" (1998, with Carl Reiner) and two for "The Producers" (2001): Best Musical Show Album (as composer/lyricist) and Best Long Form Music Video (as artist).Thus he is one of only 15 "EGOT"s, meaning those who have received at least one of all of the four major entertainment awards: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony, competitively. The other recipients are Richard Rodgers, Helen Hayes, Rita Moreno, John Gielgud, Audrey Hepburn, Marvin Hamlisch, Jonathan Tunick, Mike Nichols, Whoopi Goldberg, Scott Rudin, Robert Lopez, John Legend, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.
6. Son Eddie Brooks manages a band called "Early Edison".
7. Named one of E!'s "Top 20 entertainers of 2001".
8. Called his late wife, Anne Bancroft, his Obi-Wan Kenobi as she had encouraged him to turn his movie The Producers (1967) into a Broadway musical.
9. Named one of People Magazine's "25 Most Intriguing People of 2001".
10. At the opening of the Broadway version of "The Producers", he was asked by a reporter if he was nervous about the play's reception, since it cost $40 million to produce. Brooks joked, "If it flops, I'll take the other sixty million and fly to Rio." He did not have to worry, since the play was both a critical and financial success.
11. Brooks introduced himself to Anne Bancroft in 1961 while she was making her first appearance on The Perry Como Show (1948) (she would later return to appear on that show on various occasions over several years). Brooks bribed a woman who worked on the show to tell him at which restaurant Bancroft was going to dine so he could "accidentally" bump into her again and strike up a conversation. It worked. The two fell in love and eventually married at New York City's municipal Marriage Bureau in Lower Manhattan, where a passerby served as witness.
12. Children from his first marriage: Stefanie Brooks (born 1956), Nicky Brooks (born 1957) and Eddie Brooks (born 1959). Has one son with Anne Bancroft: Max Brooks (born 1972).
13. In 1966, he was about to co-star in a movie called "Easy Come, Easy Go" with Jan Berry and Dean Torrence in the leading roles. What would have been his on-screen debut, was canceled due to a car wreck during shooting, in which Berry suffered a severe brain damage and paralysis. On the casting list was also British comedy star Terry-Thomas.
14. Has performed a rap song for the soundtrack of History of the World: Part I (1981) called "It's Good to Be the King". It was a surprisingly successful hip-hop/dance hit in 1981. He followed it up with "Hitler Rap" for To Be or Not to Be (1983). The song was not as successful. But the lyric "Don't be stupid, be a smarty/Come and join the Nazi Party" was originally used in the original movie version of The Producers (1967), then later reused in Brooks' Broadway version of "The Producers".
15. The 1944 edition of the Eastern District High School (Brooklyn, N.Y.) yearbook featured the future Mel Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky) stating that his goal was to become President of the United States; forty-three years later, in 1987, his ambition was to be fulfilled, if only in fiction and in part -- in the movie Spaceballs (1987), he portrayed Spaceball leader "President Skroob" (an anagram of "Brooks").
16. His favorite song is "Yankee Doodle Dandy" by George M. Cohan.
17. Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy", by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 63-66. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
18. Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985." Pages 162-167. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
19. Is close friends with Italian television star Ezio Greggio, whose movies he inspired. Brooks is often a guest on Greggio's shows, and offered Greggio a small role in his movie Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), due to this friendship.
20. In 2001, he won three Tony Awards for "The Producers": as a co-producer of the Best Musical winner; as Best Book (Musical), with collaborator Thomas Meehan; and as Best Original Musical Score, both lyrics and music.