Mel Brooks to receive AFI life achievement honor

By CHRISTY LEMIRE

 LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’ll be springtime for Mel Brooks when the American Film Institute presents him with its highest honor, the Life Achievement Award.

The writer and director of comedy classics including “The Producers,” ”Blazing Saddles,” ”Young Frankenstein” and “History of the World: Part I” will receive the award at a gala tribute next June, AFI announced Friday.

The 86-year-old Brooks is the 41st recipient of the honor, which has gone to Hollywood legends including Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep and Morgan Freeman. He’s one of only 14 people to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award.

The AFI ceremony will air in late June on TNT and Turner Classic Movies.