Mel Brooks
Born: June 28 1926
Where: Brooklyn, New York, USA
The taboo-blasting Jewish comedian has carved a considerable career with spoof parodies including Blazing Saddles, The Producers and High Anxiety.
A writer/producer/director and actor, he is one of the rarefied few to have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony Award.
Born into a Russian-Jewish family, he served in the US Army during WWII as corporal where his duties included clearing mines.
Afterwards he worked as a standup comic at Catskill Mountain resorts and started writing comedy - along with Woody Allen and Neil Simon - for Sid Caesar.
Hooking up with fellow staff writer Carl Reiner, he developed the award-winning 2000 Year Old Man skit, which led to several recordings, television appearances, and a 1998 Grammy.
While creating the spy-parody Get Smart, he married actress Anne Bancroft and made his movie debut with the Oscar-winning animated short The Critic, a parody of modern art.
He then penned a screenplay based upon his experiences working with Broadway executives that led to his feature-length debut The Producers.
The movie - boasting the bad taste song Springtime For Hitler - couldn't find a distributor until British comedian Peter Sellers saw it and encouraged its release.
Brooks ended up winning an Oscar for best screenplay and, in 2000, adapted the film into a highly successful Broadway and London West End musical.
By 1970, he was switching to parodies (his work was considered 'too Jewish') and he scored an immediate success with Western spoof Blazing Saddles.
Finding his niche, he would continue to make parodies by spoofing horror (Young Frankenstein), silent movies (Silent Movie) as well as Hitchcock (High Anxiety).
With declining interest in his chosen genre - especially with Spaceballs - he concentrated on producing with The Fly and The Elephant Man among his successes.
Returning to parody, he made Robin Hood: Men in Tights in Tights (he was Rabbi Tuckman) and Dracula: Dead and Loving It. (Van Helsing).
Subsequent voice work includes The Prince of Egypt and Bigweld in animated cartoon Robots.
