In the recently released “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!”, the son of the legendary humorist talks about how his father was an unbearable person at home before achieving success.
In the two-part documentary, Nicky Brooks, Mel’s second son with his first wife, Florence Baum, speaks candidly about how the screenwriter and director struggled early in his career.
“My father had a great ambition to be a star; he desperately wanted to be someone,” he says in the program. “Not just to be successful in the industry in some abstract way, but to be recognized, noticed, and appreciated.”
“My father tended to express anxiety and stress through anger, and he became a very angry person, with very abrupt mood swings. It was difficult for my mother to raise those babies, and I think it reached a point where, frankly, it was very hard to live with my father. He was simply unbearable.”
Mel himself admits that he did not know how to handle the situation at the time and that his professional problems led to the end of his first marriage.
“It was very difficult to live with me because I was simply disgusted at having reached a dead end in my creativity. And I don’t blame her for divorcing me. It was hell living with me. Very unhappy,” he declares in the documentary.
Mel Brooks, who turns 100 in June, is one of the most influential artists in the history of entertainment and the creator of major film classics such as “Young Frankenstein”, “Blazing Saddles”, and “The Producers”.
Images: HBO reproduction. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
