AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Mel Brooks

The American Film Institute's Board of Trustees established the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1973 as a way of paying tribute to individuals whose film and TV careers have "greatly contributed to the enrichment of American culture." The award is in keeping with one of the Institute's original goals, to preserve the best of America's film past. In creating the award, the trustees deemed that "the recipient should be one whose talent has in a fundamental way advanced the film art; whose accomplishment has been acknowledged by scholars, critics, professional peers and the general public; and whose work has stood the test of time."

For the award's first two decades, the AFI focused primarily on actors and directors whose careers encompassed the Golden Age of Hollywood, from the '20s through the '50s. This was in keeping with the Board of Directors' charge that the awards be given to individuals whose work has stood "the test of time." The first honoree, John Ford, was considered so much a part of American life, President Richard Nixon attended the ceremony in his honor. Other winners during that first period included such giants as directors Orson Welles, William Wyler, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra and John Huston, and actors James Cagney, Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Lillian Gish and Fred Astaire.

In 1993, the AFI amended the criteria for selection to allow a broader interpretation of "the test of time," paving the way for filmmakers with active careers to receive the award. That allowed for such contemporary figures as Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand, Martin Scorsese and Meryl Streep to receive the honor. Each year the awards gala is telecast, often with stellar hosts like Frank Sinatra (Cagney and Welles), Jane Fonda (Davis and Barbara Stanwyck), Ingrid Bergman (Hitchcock), Shirley MacLaine (herself a recipient in 2012 and the host of fellow dancer Gene Kelly's honors), Hanks (Spielberg) and Scorsese (Robert De Niro), who returns to host the 2013 ceremony in honor of Mel Brooks.

By Frank Miller