Comedians are notoriously tortured souls and Mel Brooks – a brilliant and successful filmmaker, comedian, composer, actor – Blazing Saddles, Robin Hood: Men in Tights etc – is no exception. A biography just out by Patrick McGilligan according to the Times review is “is a damning chronicle of narcissism, mental cruelty, prejudice, treachery, moral bankruptcy, financial impropriety and chronic shouting.”
Brooks harboured insecurities, especially self-loathing and fury at the world, partly due to his father dying when he was two and learned to survive by making people laugh. But without an audience he evidently became sullen, passive aggressive and worse. When his pregnant first wife, who bore him three children, attended the premiere of one of his musicals she was reportedly banned from the cast party and sent home so he could have sex with his new fling Eartha Kitt. He bragged about his liaisons with actresses and kept a little black book of hookers’ phone numbers. After the divorce he evaded child-support payments for years. And then he met actress Anne Bancroft (The Graduate) and miraculously stayed married to her for 40 years.
Born in New York on 28 June 1926 he has a stark Sun Pluto in Cancer square Mars in Aries, which would certainly explain his browbeating, bullying and rages; with an immensely stubborn and enduring Fixed Grand Cross of Jupiter in Aquarius opposition Neptune square Saturn in Scorpio opposition Venus in Taurus.
His Aquarius Moon was probably opposition Anne Bancroft’s Jupiter which would help to smooth a few of his rough edges; and her Sun Venus in Virgo was trine his Venus in Taurus which would give a resonance.
But it certainly wasn’t all singing and dancing with his Pluto square Mars hitting on her Saturn in Capricorn, which would evoke major irritation. But she was used to tough conditions with her Saturn opposition Pluto. His Uranus opposed her Sun Venus so he would exasperate her and they both needed their own space.
Their relationship chart does have a well-aspected composite Jupiter which would be essential for keeping morale high and lessening the strain – Jupiter squares the composite Sun Mercury and was conjunct the composite North Node. And the Sun Mercury was in a steady and long-lasting trine to Saturn. But there was also a power-struggling, dominating composite Mars opposition Pluto so there would be dark, difficult moments. Her Virgo Sun arguably helped her put up with his tantrums.
She was born 17 September 1931 New York – her time is unverified and his is not known. She died in 2005.
Okay, yes, that explains it. I’ve known quite a few Virgos. They tend to do too much for others and not enough for themselves. But when push comes to shove, they’ve got a spine of steel.
Brooks would have been not yet 19 at end of war in Europe, and at the age of his first (lunar) nodal return — a pivotal point in the life of everyone, in my opinion. Plus, on 9 July 1945 there was a solar eclipse 17 Cancer with Saturn 15 Cancer in conjunction with Brooks’ natal Pluto and north node — all of which indicates profoundly psychological effects taking place around that time. Pluto never pretty, usually quite raw.
“Her Virgo sun arguably helped her put up with his tantrums.” Are Virgos known for tolerance?
Reasonably good at being doormats – up to a point.
Brooks served in the Second World War and saw action as forward artillery observer and with the 1104th Engineer Combat Group. He took part in the Battle of the Bulge. His role in clearing mines in front of advancing Allied troops was one of the most dangerous in the US army. Brooks saw the results of the Third Reich first hand and I think in part that fed back into his best film the Producers which was is part a satirical shot at the Nazi regime. Hitler and his followers would have absolutely hated the ridicule which I suspect was the hole point of the movie.
looking back into the early 1970’s, in college some of us enjoyed the songs, esp ‘Spring time for Hilter and Germany…” I was only 17 and had no knowledge of ww2 events. I learned thru my Uncle about how ww2 changed my father, who also fought in the Battle of the Bulge. My father came back from Europe “changed”. He rarely laughed after returning to the states.
Barbara, the French poet-singer, she wrote in her biography that she was also harmed during WW2 to the point of being afraid of rainbows! Can you imagine that….every time I see a rainbow, I’m feeling liberated and connected to the bounty of the whole universe! Traumatized beings are deeply scarred.
A lovely Hawaiian healer I knew once told me that in their belief system the rainbow is the bridge to the world. In the week he died I saw a vast double rainbow close by here – and he was a very large Hawaiian