NEW YORK (AP) — The 2000 Year Old Man is turning 100. Mel Brooks on Sunday will celebrate his centennial birthday.
The comedian and filmmaker has been awaiting the milestone. Earlier this year, Judd Apatow titled his retrospective documentary on him: “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!”
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FILE - Actor Anne Bancroft poses with her husband Mel Brooks at the premiere of "Great Expectations" in Los Angeles on Jan. 20, 1998. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
FILE - Actor-director Mel Brooks appears in a scene in his film, "High Anxiety" in May 1977. (AP Photo/Jim Palmer, File)
FILE - Mel Brooks, left, and Matthew Broderick react to a standing ovation at opening night of "The Producers" in New York on April 19, 2001. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - Mel Brooks attends the premiere of "If You're Not In The Obit, Eat Breakfast" on May 17, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Mel Brooks arrives at the premiere of "Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!" in Los Angeles on Jan. 20, 2026. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
“I was born to make people laugh,” Brooks says in the film. “So, I do that.”
Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn, New York, on June 28, 1926. After serving in the Army during World War II and performing in the Borscht Belt, Sid Caesar hired him as a writer. On his “Show of Shows,” Brooks met Carl Reiner, who'd remain a lifelong friend and with whom he created the “2000 Year Old Man” sketches.
Reiner would pepper Brooks' ancient man with questions about what Jesus was like. “Jesus … yes, yes,” Brooks would answer. “Thin lad. Wore sandals. Always walked around with 12 other guys.”
Brooks went to make classic comedies like “The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein” and “High Anxiety.” It all started, Brooks told The Associated Press in 2021, with his childhood in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
“I wanted to keep the party going. I wanted to keep the happiness and joy and explosions of laughter going into a dour part of our lives, not our childhood anymore,” Brooks recalled. “I was once interviewed and the guy said, ‘What was the happiest part of your life? Was it winning the Academy Award? Was it marrying Anne Bancroft?’ I said no, not at all. It was my childhood. From about 4 or 5 to 9, it was the most exciting, happiest, joyous life that anyone could experience.
“The guy said, 'What happened at 9?’ I said, 'Homework.'”
In April, Brooks submitted a video message to Eddie Murphy to honor him for his AFI life achievement award. In May, he announced that he was donating thousands of his documents and photographs to the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York.
“I’ve always been proud to say that I make people laugh for a living,” Brooks said then in a statement. “So, knowing that my work will have a home at comedy’s national archive and continue making people laugh leaves me with a deep sense of pride.”
Brooks has sometimes made mortality a joke, too. In a 1980s sketch, he created a coin-operated gravestone for himself that played a videotaped message. It began: “I was Mel Brooks, one of the funniest little Jews to walk the Earth.”
When asked in that AP 2021 interview if he thought much about death, Brooks said no.
“I gave up after 60 thinking about it because if I did, I’d be thinking about it all the time. So I don’t think about it much. When and if it happens it’s going to be a sad day — for everybody but me,” Brooks said, laughing.
“I enjoy living,” he added. “I’d like to do it as long as I can.”
FILE - Actor Anne Bancroft poses with her husband Mel Brooks at the premiere of "Great Expectations" in Los Angeles on Jan. 20, 1998. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
FILE - Actor-director Mel Brooks appears in a scene in his film, "High Anxiety" in May 1977. (AP Photo/Jim Palmer, File)
FILE - Mel Brooks, left, and Matthew Broderick react to a standing ovation at opening night of "The Producers" in New York on April 19, 2001. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - Mel Brooks attends the premiere of "If You're Not In The Obit, Eat Breakfast" on May 17, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Mel Brooks arrives at the premiere of "Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!" in Los Angeles on Jan. 20, 2026. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
Russian air defenses intercepted 660 Ukrainian drones in a major nighttime attack on 12 Russian regions as well as the Russia-held Crimean peninsula, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday.
It appeared to be one of the biggest drone attacks on Russia and the illegally annexed Crimea since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago. The previous biggest Ukrainian attack over the past year was 556 drones on May 17.
In an effort to turn the tables on Russia’s grinding war of attrition, Ukrainian long-range drones have for months been battering targets, including oil production and energy facilities, behind the front line and deep inside Russia. The campaign has choked Russian fuel supplies and military deliveries, stalling Moscow's efforts on the battlefield, Western officials and analysts say, and heaped pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Initial damage reports from Russia after the overnight attack provided scant information. Russia’s Defense Ministry usually doesn't say what was targeted in Ukraine’s drone attacks, nor does it detail any damage.
Ukraine’s Security Service said it used drones to strike Russian navy ships and air defense radars in Kerch, an important port city in Crimea.
The targets were two reconnaissance and mine-laying ships, the Volga and the Vyatka, and the cargo-passenger ferry Petropavlovsk, the agency said, claiming that the strikes started a large fire. The claim could not be independently verified.
The major attack came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that he had ordered “a 40-day influence operation,” believed to mean an escalation of attacks, aimed at “compelling (Russia) to end the war” after U.S. peace efforts over the past year yielded no breakthrough.
The successful strikes, including hitting targets in Moscow and St. Petersburg, have buoyed Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said he got further promises of foreign support when he attended a recent summit of G7 leaders, including from U.S. President Donald Trump, and that the promised aid will help Ukraine step up its effort to force Putin to the negotiating table.
A NATO summit next month could be another key moment in beefing up Ukraine's military.
In the Tula region just south of Moscow, a private house was damaged by the attack and a woman was wounded, Tula Gov. Dmitry Milyaev said in an online statement, as reports of damage caused by the attack began to emerge.
He also said a power line was damaged and an unspecified industrial facility in the city of Novomoskovsk.
Russian independent online outlet Astra reported that a chemical plant and a hydroelectric plant in Novomoskovsk were attacked and caught fire. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the report, and there was no official confirmation.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin also reported that 47 Ukrainian drones were downed as they flew toward the Russian capital. He did not report any casualties or damage.
Two people were killed and seven others injured in Russian attacks on the northeastern Kharkiv region over the previous 24 hours, regional head Oleh Syniehubov said Friday.
Russian forces struck the city of Kharkiv and 16 other settlements across the region using guided aerial bombs and drones of various types, Syniehubov said.
Ukraine’s defenses overnight stopped 174 of 189 Russian drones, the Ukrainian air force said. However, four of seven Iskander-M ballistic missiles that were fired got through air defenses and struck various locations, it said.
Ukrainian officials reported damage to energy facilities, homes and other civilian infrastructure in the capital, Kyiv, the southern Odesa and Zaporizhzhia regions, and Sumy in the northeast. At least six people were wounded, according to authorities.
Russia is expanding several of its military sites deep inside Belarus, but there is no buildup of forces near the Ukrainian border, a State Border Guard Service spokesman said Friday.
Russia launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine from Belarus, which borders both countries, and Kyiv has kept a close watch on developments there during the war.
Ukrainian intelligence units have detected no grouping or reinforcement of Russian units, equipment or personnel close to the border, spokesman Andrii Demchenko said in remarks to Ukrainian television.
However, Russia has a growing number of training grounds, bases and other sites deeper inside the country, according to intelligence units.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo, provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters extinguish a fire in a residential building following a Russian drone attack in Sumy region, Ukraine, Friday, June 26, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo, provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters extinguish a fire in a residential building following a Russian drone attack in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, June 26, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
A woman holds her cat after it being found during search and rescue works in the damaged residential building following Russia's missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
