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Scorsese to present AFI Life Achievement Award to Mel Brooks

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Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese (“The Departed,” “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” “Hugo”) will present the American Film Institute’s 41st Life Achievement Award to comedy master Mel Brooks at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on June 6.

Scorsese received the prestigious AFI honor in 1997 for his body of work.

Brooks, who has won the Tony, Oscar, Grammy and Emmy, began his career as a comedian on the borscht-belt circuit and as a writer in the early 1950s on the legendary Sid Caesar series “Your Show of Shows.”

He’s written, directed and sometimes starred in such landmark comedies as 1968’s “The Producers,” for which he won the original screenplay Oscar, and 1974’s “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein,” and produced such acclaimed dramas as 1980’s “The Elephant Man” and 1982’s “Frances.”

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“For over 50 years, Mel Brooks has give the world its greatest gift — laughter,” Sir Howard Stringer, chair of the AFI Board of Trustees, said in a statement.

“At the American Film Institute, we also want to shine a proper light on his contributions to the art form as writer, producer, director and actor — and who better to bestow this honor than one of the masters of American film, Martin Scorsese.”

The ceremony will air June 15 on TNT, and as part of an all-night celebration of Brooks on Turner Classic Movies on July 24 that will include the rarely seen 1970 comedy “The Twelve Chairs.”

Past recipients of the AFI honor include John Ford, Orson Welles, James Cagney, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, Gene Kelly, Billy Wilder, Sidney Poitier, Kirk and Michael Douglas, Mike Nichols and Shirley MacLaine.

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