Mel Brooks: My mother would bring home live fish to kill for dinner

He is one of the most decorated personalities in Hollywood and has a bank balance in excess of £100 million.

But Oscar winner Mel Brooks has revealed that when he was a boy growing up in Brooklyn, New York, his family was so hard-pressed that his mother would bring home fish and kill them to eat for dinner.

Brooks, now 96, admits that he and his brother even fell in love with one of them, calling him Arty.

However, his mother, Kate Kaminsky, a low-paid garment worker who raised her four children alone after her husband Melvin died when Brooks was just two, later served it on a plate to her children.

Brooks (pictured) has previously spoken about how he grew up in a tough area and often felt like an outsider for being Jewish, short and unathletic, so he used comedy from an early age to defend himself.

Speaking to The River Cafe owner Ruth Rogers on her Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast, the American actor, comedian and filmmaker said: “My mom would just get a live fish.”

‘My brother Bernie and I called him Arty. We fed him bread crumbs and chased him around the tub.

But it was indescribable. My brothers Irving and Lenny stopped us when she killed Arty. Then we ate it. She said we had to eat.

Brooks, who made his name with movies like The Producers, Blazing Saddles and The Twelve Chairs, was born at a table in a $16-a-month tenement in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in 1926.

He previously discussed how he grew up in a difficult area and often felt like an outsider for being Jewish, short, and unathletic, so he used comedy from an early age to defend himself.

During the podcast, he also talked about how, despite falling for Broadway at a young age, he was sent to join the US Army.

Brooks, who was married to Anne Bancroft until her death in 2005, also opened up about his friendship with legendary actor Cary Grant, who took him under his wing while he was still a star in the making.