Martin Scorsese To Present Mel Brooks With AFI Life Achievement Award

Martin Scorsese will present Mel Brooks with the American Film Institute’s 41st Life Achievement Award – America’s highest honor for a career in film. The private black tie gala will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on June 6 and will air on TNT Saturday, June 15, at 9 p.m. ET/PT and as part of an all-night tribute to Brooks on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) Sunday, July 24, at 8 p.m. ET. Brooks will be recognized for his range of mastery as a director, producer, writer, actor and composer.

Martin Scorsese is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time having received the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to cinema, two AFI Awards, an Academy®Award, a Palme d’Or, Grammy® Award, two Emmys®, four Golden Globes®, a BAFTA and three DGA Awards. Scorsese’s body of work includes films such as THE DEPARTED, GANGS OF NEW YORK, GOODFELLAS, HUGO, MEAN STREETS, RAGING BULL, TAXI DRIVER and the upcoming WOLF OF WALL STREET, which will be released in Fall 2013.

“For over 50 years, Mel Brooks has given the world its greatest gift – laughter,” said Sir Howard Stringer, Chair of the AFI Board of Trustees. “At the American Film Institute, we also want to shine a proper light on his contributions to the art form as writer, producer, director and actor – and who better to bestow this honor than one of the masters of American film, Martin Scorsese.”

In addition to airing the AFI Life Achievement Award special, TCM’s July 14 celebration of Mel Brooks will include two of his classic films: the rarely shown THE TWELVE CHAIRS (1970), making its TCM debut, and THE PRODUCERS (1968), the wild comedy that earned Brooks an Oscar® for Best Original Screenplay. Also included with TCM’s presentation will be classic interviews with Brooks by television legends Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett.

Proceeds from the AFI Life Achievement Award gala event directly support the Institute’s national education programs and the preservation of American film history. Sponsors of the 2013 AFI Life Achievement Award tribute to Mel Brooks include Audi of America, Deloitte, HP and American Airlines, the official airline of the American Film Institute.

Mel Brooks, director, producer, writer, actor and composer, is in an elite group as one of the few creative individuals to earn all four major entertainment prizes – the Tony®, Emmy®, Grammy® and Oscar®. His career began in the borscht belt and then television, writing for YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS. He teamed up with Carl Reiner to write and perform the Grammy®-winning“2000 Year Old Man” comedy albums and books. Brooks and Buck Henry created the long running TV series GET SMART.

Brooks won his first Oscar® in 1964for writing and narrating the animated short THE CRITIC and his second for the screenplay of his first feature film THE PRODUCERS in 1968. Many hit comedy films followed including THE TWELVE CHAIRS, BLAZING SADDLES, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, SILENT MOVIE, HIGH ANXIETY, HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART I, TO BE OR NOT TO BE, SPACEBALLS, LIFE STINKS, ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS and DRACULA: DEAD AND LOVING IT.

His film company, Brooks films Limited, also produced critically acclaimed films such as THE ELEPHANT MAN, THE FLY, FRANCES, MY FAVORITE YEAR and 84 CHARRING CROSS ROAD. For three successive seasons, 1997-1999, Mel Brooks won Emmy Awards® for his role as Uncle Phil on the hit sitcom MAD ABOUT YOU. Brooks received three 2001 Tony Awards® and two Grammy Awards® for “The Producers: the New Mel Brooks Musical,” which ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2006. He followed that success with “The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein,” which ran on Broadway from 2007 to 2009, and both musicals continue to be performed and enjoyed by audiences all over the world.

In 2009 Mel Brooks also received The Kennedy Center Honors, recognizing a lifetime of extraordinary contributions to American culture. His most recent projects include the Emmy®-nominated HBO comedy special MEL BROOKS AND DICK CAVETT TOGETHER AGAIN and a career retrospective DVD box set titled “The Incredible Mel Brooks: An Irresistible Collection Of Unhinged Comedy.”

AFI Life Achievement Award Recipients

Mel Brooks joins an esteemed group of individuals who have been chosen for this distinguished honor since its inception in 1973.

1973   John Ford

1974   James Cagney

1975   Orson Welles

1976   William Wyler

1977   Bette Davis

1978   Henry Fonda

1979   Alfred Hitchcock

1980   James Stewart

1981   Fred Astaire

1982   Frank Capra

1983   John Huston

1984   Lillian Gish

1985   Gene Kelly

1986   Billy Wilder

1987   Barbara Stanwyck

1988   Jack Lemmon

1989   Gregory Peck

1990   David Lean

1991   Kirk Douglas

1992   Sidney Poitier

1993   Elizabeth Taylor

1994   Jack Nicholson

1995   Steven Spielberg

1996   Clint Eastwood

1997   Martin Scorsese

1998   Robert Wise

1999   Dustin Hoffman

2000   Harrison Ford

2001   Barbra Streisand

2002   Tom Hanks

2003   Robert De Niro

2004   Meryl Streep

2005   George Lucas

2006   Sean Connery

2007   Al Pacino

2008   Warren Beatty

2009   Michael Douglas

2010   Mike Nichols

2011   Morgan Freeman

2012   Shirley MacLaine

2013   Mel Brooks

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