AFI to honor Mel Brooks

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LOS ANGELES, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- The American Film Institute says it will present comedian-writer-director Mel Brooks with its Life Achievement Award at a Hollywood gala next year.

The June 6 tribute will air at a later date on TNT and Turner Classic Movies.

"Brooks is America's long-reigning king of comedy -- and as he taught us long ago it's good to be the king," Howard Stringer, AFI's board of trustees chairman, said in a statement Friday. "He's a master of an art form that rarely gets the respect it deserves, and it is AFI's honor to shine a bright light on laughter by presenting Mel Brooks the 41st AFI Life Achievement Award."

Brooks' films include the comedy classics "The Producers," "Blazing Saddles," "Young Frankenstein," "History of the World Part 1," "Spaceballs" and "Robin Hood: Men in Tights."