Where Is Mel Brooks Now? Inside the “Spaceballs” Director’s Life Today and How He’s Still Making Audiences Laugh
- - Where Is Mel Brooks Now? Inside the “Spaceballs” Director’s Life Today and How He’s Still Making Audiences Laugh
Nicole BrieseJanuary 24, 2026 at 8:45 PM
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Mel Brooks, circa 1985 ; Mel Brooks on February 27, 2023 in Los Angeles, California -
Mel Brooks' work spans every corner of Hollywood, including TV and movies
The actor juggled being a husband and father as his career expanded
Brooks is the subject of the HBO documentary Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man!
More than five decades after becoming a household name, Mel Brooks' career is still going strong.
The famed film director is having what his son Maximillian “Max” Brooks calls a “wonderful fourth or fifth act.”
“There’s now all of this interest in redoing his former projects,” he said in the HBO documentary Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man!, which was released in January 2026. “He’s having this amazing career renaissance.”
Brooks first found major commercial success with the release of his 1974 films Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. The titles brought the director both fame and criticism for his boundary-pushing comedy, which tackled complex themes such as racism, sexuality and corruption.
Brooks, who became a member of the EGOT club in 2001, continued to push the envelope with his subsequent films, including 1981’s History of the World, Part I, which referenced the Spanish Inquisition.
"I'm proud to say I have made people laugh for a living, and ... I can honestly say, I've done it as well as anybody,” he wrote in his 2021 memoir, All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business.
Here's everything to know about Mel Brooks' career and what he's doing now.
Brooks’ comedic approach was shaped by his past
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Mel Brooks at the Oscars on April 14, 1969 in Los Angeles, California
Though the world may know Brooks as a comedian, screenwriter, director, actor and a producer — with over 60 film credits to his name and more than 20 major awards under his belt — the multi-hyphenate is also Jewish and a World War II vet.
Brooks' work explored serious topics through humor, including historic events like the Holocaust and issues such as homelessness.
“There are many real, horrible things ... that we’re not addressing that have to be addressed in some artistic form,” he said in The 99-Year-Old Man!. “If the government’s not gonna pay attention, art must pay attention.”
In his own words, Brooks is “primarily an observer of life, who formalizes the observations by writing them down.”
As he explained, “Everything I have to say, every serious comment I have to make on the human condition, our behavior, I can make through comedy.”
He made major sacrifices for his career
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Mel Brooks, circa 1970
Brooks is a father to his four children. He and his first wife, Florence Baum, share Stefanie Brooks, Nicholas “Nicky” Brooks and Edward “Eddie” Brooks. Brooks also welcomed Max with his late wife Anne Bancroft.
According to Nicky, Brooks’ relationship with his children suffered as a result of his success.
“When Blazing Saddles and Young Frank hit, it transformed my dad,” Nicky said in the HBO documentary. “For our family, those movies changed the picture entirely because when he went out to L.A. to work on Blazing Saddles, he moved out there."
He continued, “My dad had been this presence, this physical presence in our lives, and then suddenly the visits stopped. ... It wasn’t the same rhythm of connection.”
Brooks also kept any setbacks from his children. “My father would never tell me about his bad days,” Max said. “He never liked to dwell. So my mother would always be there to explain why he was in a bad mood, and it wasn’t my fault.”
Brooks has mourned his wife Bancroft since her 2005 death
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Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks
Brooks' wife Bancroft died at 73 from uterine cancer on June 6, 2005. The couple were married for 41 years.
According to his son Eddie, Bancroft’s death changed his father. “All the light went out. He was not in a good place,” he said in The 99-Year-Old Man!. “He just worshiped her.”
Brooks wrote about losing Anne in his 2021 memoir. "Living this life without her is not easy," he shared.
Brooks turned to work in his time of need. In his book, Brooks thanked Young Frankenstein’s playwright Thomas Meehan and director Susan Stroman for pulling him “out of [his] abyss of despair” with their Broadway adaption of his movie, per USA Today.
He’s voiced several cartoon characters in recent years
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'Hotel Transylvania 2' ; Mel Brooks on February 12, 2017 in London, England
In his later years, Brooks lent his vocal talents to the likes of Spaceballs: The Animated Series (2008-2009), Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) and Hotel Transylvania 3 (2018) and Toy Story 4 (2019).
"I see a lot of Dracula’s father in me. My kids will tell you that,” he said in a 2015 interview of his Hotel Transylvania character Vlad.
Brooks quipped, “They didn’t have to elongate my nose quite so much. It’s there."
Brooks has received Hollywood’s top honors
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Mel Brooks during his ceremony for the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 23, 2010 in Hollywood, California
Brooks has continued to rack up the awards over the years, receiving a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010 and the National Medal of Arts as bestowed by President Barack Obama in 2015.
He topped them all off with a Peabody Award for his career achievements in 2024 and an honorary Oscar “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences or for outstanding service to the Academy" in January 2026.
He is still leaving his mark in Hollywood today
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Mel Brooks speaks onstage on April 21, 2024 in Hollywood, California
As of late, Brooks has experienced a resurgence of some of his greatest works.
In 2022, he revisited Blazing Saddles with a loosely inspired animated remake titled Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, on which he is credited both as a writer and the voice of Shogun Toshi.
The following year, the long-awaited sequel to Brooks’ 1981 film History of the World Part I got a sequel on Hulu. He produced, co-wrote and narrated the series. “I can't wait to once more tell the real truth about all the phony baloney stories the world has been conned into believing are History!" he said at the time.
The comedian also reprised his role as Spaceballs’ Yogurt for the Josh Gad-led sequel, which will be released under him in 2027.
Deadline reported in June 2025 that Brooks had also given the upcoming Very Young Frankenstein series his seal of approval and agreed to executive produce.
Most recently, on Jan. 22, HBO debuted its two-part documentary about the film legend’s life. “I hope that my contribution, cinematically, comically, to the world, will be durable,” he said.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
