Mel Brooks’ Decades-Long Bonds with Anne Bancroft and Carl Reiner

Despite Mel Brooks ‘ singular comedic voice, it feels odd to think of the soon-to-be 100-year-old as an auteur — mostly because so much of his work was produced in collaboration, whether it be co-writing Blazing Saddles with Richard Pryor, his multiple films with Gene Wilder, or his sympatico bonds with so many others. Two relationships, in particular, really defined both his life and career: Carl Reiner , his beloved comedy partner, and Anne Bancroft , his beloved partner in life (and also comedy partner).

Reiner and Brooks’ friendship began when the two men were hired as writers for Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows in 1950. Although Reiner was never a big part of Brooks’ film career (beyond an uncredited cameo in History of the World, Part 1 ) the two did have a signature bit: “The 2000-Year-Old Man,” which featured Brooks as an unnamed man who happened to have been alive since the time of Jesus.

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Like most great bits, “The 2000-Year-Old Man” began as a joke between the two friends, before evolving into a signature routine for them, Reiner as the straight man, interviewing Brooks with a series of questions about his very long, semi-unremarkable life. Brooks, famously, never repeated a single punchline. They recorded five comedy albums together featuring “The 2000-Year-Old Man” — the pre-YouTube way a sketch used to spread — and an animated special was produced in 1975.

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Both men continued in their separate careers, but remained close for the rest of Reiner’s life. For many, one definition of “relationship goals” can be boiled down to Brooks and Reiner’s late-in-life routine: Dinner and Jeopardy and movies at Reiner’s house, every night. The ritual was actually documented by Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (streaming on Netflix), a rare opportunity to see the two men interacting in an unfiltered, natural way. Always dedicated to the cause of cracking each other up.

Brooks was with Reiner when he died at the age of 98, as revealed in the in the HBO documentary Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man . “I just didn’t want him to go. I just couldn’t — I wouldn’t accept it. I loved him so much.”

In January, I was fortunate enough to attend the premiere of The 99-Year-Old Man , which was followed by a Q&A between co-director Judd Apatow and Brooks. The most heartbreaking moment of that evening was when Apatow brought up Reiner, who died five years before the horrifying death of son Rob Reiner and wife Michelle Singer. With the kind of kindness only the truest friend could utter, Brooks admitted that “I’m glad that [Carl] passed away when he did.” Because, he continued, “he never could have survived this terrible, terrible thing.”

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Still, Brooks was not shy about his feelings for his lost collaborator. “I loved him. Sweetest guy who ever lived.”

Meanwhile, Anne Bancroft was alive and well in his memory. In The 99-Year-Old Man , Brooks shared a story about what happened after The Producers premiered to less-than-positive reviews from critics, which devastated him. Talking to Bancroft in tears, he started talking about returning to television. “ Slap — she hits me,” Brooks said, before going on to quote what she said next: “That’s a great movie. And you created great characters. Bialystock and Bloom, they’ll live forever.” Bancroft wasn’t wrong about that.

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During the Q&A, Brooks shared a story about the only other time Bancroft slapped him — back when money was tight, they’d gone out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and she’d slipped him a $20 bill under the table so he could pay. “The bill turned out to be $8. And, you know, I forgot who I was and where I was, and when the waitress came, I said, ‘Keep the change.’ And she hauled off and knocked me off my chair. She said, it’s my money. Don’t be such a big shot.” He told the story with such love in his voice — an appreciation that comes with a lifelong passion for slapstick.

Bancroft was Brooks’ second wife, following his divorce from dancer Florence Baum in 1962 — Brooks famously introduced himself to her after seeing her rehearse a song for The Perry Como Show . Well, his introduction came in the form of him standing up in the audience and yelling “Anne Bancroft, I’m Mel Brooks, and I love you.” Following that, he said during the Q&A he proceeded to “chase her around all night, all week. I found out where she’d be going through friends of hers, and I’d end up at that party. I’d end up at that restaurant. I’d say, ‘What is this? What is this? Kismet?’ She said, ‘Kismet, bullshit. You’re following me.'”

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It of course worked out well for the two of them — they were married in 1964 and remained together until Bancroft’s passing in 2005. During that time, Bancroft made cameos in Brooks’ movies, but the only film they properly starred in was 1983’s To Be or Not to Be , which Brooks didn’t direct but remains a definitive part of his filmography. (It’s even included in The Mel Brooks Collection box set , which was a huge help when Consequence was ranking his films .)

In To Be or Not to Be , the happy couple plays a not-so-happy couple, a pair of Polish actors facing the coming onslaught of World War II. Their issues have nothing to do with the Nazi invasion of their homeland, though: Frederick Bronski is consumed by his own ego, while the frustrated Anna starts flirting with a potential lover (played by an ’80s-era Tim Matheson, so, you know, relatable). It’s based on the 1942 film starring Carole Lombard and Jack Benny, and its plot hews closely to the original — so this was not a story written with them in mind. However, the reality of their relationship off-screen enhances the fictional one in contrast.

The limited number of times Brooks and Bancroft got to be funny together on screen only makes those moments more precious. One particularly memorable scene is the two of them in the Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 4 finale, revealing that in a meta twist, they had cast Larry David in their new production of The Producers so that they might finally get it to flop, and thus be “freed from the anchor, from the albatross” of their hit Broadway show. They’re so in sync together, sharp and attuned to each and fully committed to the premise of the scene. A scene which revolved around the idea of them just wanting to spend more time with each other.

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No one ever gets enough time with the ones we love, no matter how many decades we live. May we all be so fortunate, though, as to have a fraction of the luck Brooks has had.

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_Originally reported by [Consequence](https://consequence.net/2026/06/mel-brooks-anne-bancroft-carl-reiner-love/)._