Mel Brooks, actor, filmmaker, comedian, songwriter and playwright, has reached 100 with a lifespan as long as his talents. Winner of an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, he can look back on a seven decade career with many highs including Blazing Saddles, The Producers, Young Frankenstein and the Elephant Man – and a few lows.
He was born 28 June 1926, a month after Marilyn Monroe, three months after Queen Elizabeth 11 and four months after David Attenborough – so it was a notable year.
When asked the secret to a long life years ago, he replied: “Don’t die.”
Farces, parodies and black humour were his metier.
He was born on the kitchen table of a tenement in Brooklyn, the son of European Jewish immigrants, and brought up by his mother after his father died when he was two years old. He was a small, sickly child and the youngest of four brothers. Despite which he fought in World War 11 in 1944 on the Western Front, which allowed him to make outrageous jokes ever after about the Nazis. After a brief first marriage which produced three children, he met and wedded actress Anne Bancroft, staying together for 41 years until her death in 2005.
He has a Sun Pluto conjunction in Cancer square Mars in Aries, so a force to be reckoned with. He turned a good deal of anger and frustration into biting wit and made a joke of what he could not change. His Jupiter square his Mars/Pluto midpoint would help to mellow the bleakness of the Mars Pluto.
He also had the powerful collection of Fixed signs of that year with Neptune in Leo opposition Jupiter in Aquarius square Venus in Taurus opposition Saturn in Scorpio. An unbudgeable personality and not always comfortable within himself though he made lifelong friends and was universally liked.
His Moon was in Aquarius which generally lends a mischievous air to proceedings.
His four decade marriage to Anne Bancroft, 17 September 1931, matched her Sun Venus in Virgo to his Venus in Taurus and her Sagittarius Moon to his Aquarius Moon. Her stellium in Virgo and a Mutable Moon would make her flexible and able to cope with his strong Fixed temperament. But it would not all have been easy. The relationship chart had an intense fanatical composite Mars opposition Pluto, softened to a degree by good Jupiter aspects and a ‘fated’ yod which would make it feel meant – and indeed it would have a profound effect on both. She battled depression and an alcohol problem during her life.
A reviewer wrote: “He is the son of immigrants who fought the Nazis and ultimately triumphed in every area of showbusiness. He is the American dream made flesh.”
Mel Brooks quotes:
“If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us tickets.”
“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.”
“Rhetoric does not get you anywhere, because Hitler and Mussolini are just as good at rhetoric. But if you can bring these people down with comedy, they stand no chance.”
“If Shaw and Einstein couldn’t beat death, what chance have I got? Practically none.”
“Humor is just another defense against the universe.”
“Bad taste is simply saying the truth before it should be said.”
“He who hesitates is poor.”
“I don’t believe in this business of being behind, better to be in front.”