Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1534
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Mel Brooks represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 59 years in, and Mel is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Mel Brooks appears in 22 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Mel. John Candy: I Like Me is the clearest case: a film rated 7.9 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for science fiction, comedy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Josh Greenbaum, Colin Hanks, Russell Norman and others, Mel Brooks helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
John Candy: I Like Me (2025) as Self - Director, Spaceballs · Toy Story 4 (2019) as Melephant Brooks (voice) · Young Frankenstein (1974) as Werewolf / Cat / Victor Frankenstein (voice) (uncredited)
Career snapshot
Ranked #1534 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
22
1968–2027
Career length
59 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.9
John Candy: I Like Me
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.9
John Candy: I Like Me
Most frequent director
Mel Brooks
5 films together
Longest collaboration
5×
With Mel Brooks
Most common genre
Comedy
16 titles
Average runtime
1h 31m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.8
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1970s
7.1 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. The Muppet Movie, High Anxiety, Blazing Saddles — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.1
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1960s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Producers.
Most productive era
2020s
7 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Action | — | — | — | — | — | — | 6.61 film |
| Thriller | — | 6.41 film | — | — | — | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.91 film | 7.14 films | 6.82 films | 5.51 film | 6.42 films | 7.04 films | 3.32 films |
| Romance | — | — | 6.61 film | 5.51 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1968The Producers
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Singer in "Springtime for Hitler" (voice) (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
7.9 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as President Skroob / Yogurt.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
22 of 22 films
as Self - Director, Spaceballs
Directed by Colin Hanks
as Melephant Brooks (voice)
Directed by Josh Cooley
as Werewolf / Cat / Victor Frankenstein (voice) (uncredited)
Directed by Mel Brooks
as Self
Directed by Unknown
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Self - Director, Spaceballs
John Candy: I Like Me (2025)
Performance score7.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Self - Director, Spaceballs gives Mel Brooks a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Melephant Brooks (voice)
Toy Story 4 (2019)
Performance score7.5
Toy Story 4 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Melephant Brooks (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Werewolf / Cat / Victor Frankenstein (voice) (uncredited)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Performance score7.5
Young Frankenstein asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Werewolf / Cat / Victor Frankenstein (voice) (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Self
The Automat (2021)
Performance score7.4
The Automat asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Self - Director, Spaceballs
Start here. John Candy: I Like Me is the clearest statement of what Mel Brooks does — accessible, 113 minutes, and rated 7.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Mel at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Young Frankenstein (1974)
A deliberate change of key after John Candy: I Like Me — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Ballerina (2016)
A deliberate change of key after Young Frankenstein — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Toy Story 4 (2019)
Keeps the adventure register of Ballerina but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Automat (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Toy Story 4 — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Mel Brooks
Director
5 films together
Notably Young Frankenstein
Genndy Tartakovsky
Director
2 films together
Notably Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
James Frawley
Director
1 film together
Notably The Muppet Movie
Alan Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably To Be or Not to Be
Amy Heckerling
Director
1 film together
Notably Look Who's Talking Too
Susan Stroman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Producers
Chris Wedge
Director
1 film together
Notably Robots
Rob Minkoff
Director
1 film together
Notably Mr. Peabody & Sherman
Josh Cooley
Director
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 4
Chris Bailey
Director
1 film together
Notably Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
Russell Norman
Director
1 film together
Notably Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
Colin Hanks
Director
1 film together
Notably John Candy: I Like Me
Josh Greenbaum
Director
1 film together
Notably Spaceballs: The New One
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Mel Brooks
Director
5 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Young FrankensteinGenndy Tartakovsky
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer VacationColin Hanks
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
John Candy: I Like MeJosh Cooley
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Toy Story 4Russell Norman
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of MagicJames Frawley
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Muppet MovieRob Minkoff
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mr. Peabody & ShermanChris Bailey
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Paws of Fury: The Legend of HankChris Wedge
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RobotsAlan Johnson
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
To Be or Not to BeSusan Stroman
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ProducersAmy Heckerling
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Look Who's Talking TooJosh Greenbaum
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Spaceballs: The New OneSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
John Candy: I Like Me
as Self - Director, Spaceballs
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic
as Self
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Young Frankenstein
as Werewolf / Cat / Victor Frankenstein (voice) (uncredited)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Producers
as Hilda the Pigeon / Tom the Cat (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
John Candy: I Like Me
as Self - Director, Spaceballs
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Mel Brooks has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
59 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
16 catalogue titles in comedy, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
John Candy: I Like Me
as Self - Director, Spaceballs
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
High Anxiety
as Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Land of Sometimes
as The Postman (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
High Anxiety
as Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Toy Story 4
as Melephant Brooks (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
as Shogun (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
To Be or Not to Be
as Dr. Frederick Bronski
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Toy Story 4
as Melephant Brooks (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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