Background

Ethnicity: Gibson's mother was Irish, from County Longford, while his American-born father is of mostly Irish descent.

Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson was born on January 3, 1956 in Peekskill, New York, United States; the sixth of eleven children of Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, and Anne Patricia (Reilly) Gibson. His father, Hutton, considering New York City no place to raise children, moved the family north to Croton-on-Hudson, then on to nearby Verplanck Point and, by 1961, on to a farmhouse at Mount Vision. Times were hard and Hutton figured he'd run the farm and do his rail job too. So he spent weekdays in New York City while the family (isolated by mother Anne's inability to drive) stuck out on the farm.

In 1964, disaster struck when Hutton suffered a serious work accident and lost his job. The Gibsons were forced to move into cheap rented accommodation, with the older children having to take jobs, while Hutton entered into a compensation battle with the company. It would take three years to work out. When it did, though, it worked out well.

Hutton was a strict and traditional Catholic - having at one point studied for the priesthood - and did not really approve of the cultural changes in the Sixties, regarding the hippies' penchant for mind-expansion and promiscuity as a sad sign of moral decline. Consequently, when he won $145,000 compensation and a further $21,000 from the Jeopardy! gameshow, he decided to take the family to Australia, Anne's homeland (her mother had been an opera singer who'd emigrated to the States). So, off they went, via Ireland, Scotland, England and Rome, where the kids were shown their Celtic heritage and spent time at the Vatican. They arrived in Australia in November of 1968 and settled in a suburb north of Sydney.

Education

Mel Asquith studied at High School For Boys in Sydney. He then entered the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, graduating from it in 1977.

In 2003, Mel Gibson received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Loyola Marymount University.

Career

Gibson began working on the small screen just after graduating from the university. He appeared in television series 'The Sullivans' (1976-1983), 'Cop Shop' (1977-1984) and 'Punishment' (1981). Gibson’s first big screen debut came in the form of an uncredited role as a baseball player in 'I Never Promised You a Rose Garden' (1977). Also, he starred in 'Summer City' (1977). Two years later, Gibson was offered the lead role in George Miller’s sensational 'Mad Max' (1979).

Playing the title role in 'Tim' (1979) won Gibson his first Best Actor in a Lead Role Award from The Australian Film Institute and playing Frank Dunne in Peter Weir’s WW1 drama 'Gallipoli' (1981) won him his second. 'Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior' (1981) was another runaway hit and finally made a star of Gibson in America. To follow were two more war dramas, the mediocre 'Attack Force Z' (1982) and the 'The Year of Living Dangerously' (1982) with Sigourney Weaver. He then starred as Fletcher Christian with Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson in 'The Bounty' (1984).

It was New Yorker Mark Rydell’s epic love story 'The River' (1984), in which Gibson starred opposite Sissy Spacek. He played prisoner Ed Biddle, with Diane Keaton and Matthew Modine, in the romantic drama 'Mrs. Soffel' (1984) before returning once more to Australia and his Mad Max role, to film the third in the series. It was 'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome' (1985) with Tina Turner as Aunty Entity. He was offered the role of Sergeant Martin Riggs in the 'Lethal Weapon' series.

Between 'Lethal Weapon' (1987) and 'Lethal Weapon 2' (1989), Gibson starred in the action-romance 'Tequila Sunrise' (1988) with Michele Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell. Then came adventure comedy 'Bird on a Wire' (1990) with David Carradine and the delightful Goldie Hawn, and action comedy 'Air America' (1990) with Robert Downey Jr, about the Vietnam War.

In an unusual switch of genres, from action to classical, Gibson played the Danish Prince in Franco Zeffirelli’s 'Hamlet' (1990) with co-stars Glenn Close, Alan Bates, and Paul Schofield, and certainly held his own. 'Lethal Weapon 3' (1992) scored its by-now-usual box-office hit and Gibson made his directorial debut with 'The Man Without a Face' (1993). In this heart-warming drama, he starred as Justin McLeod. Next was his role as the gambling Bret Maverick Jr in 'Maverick' (1994), with the charming lady thief played by Jodie Foster.

The unforgettable historical epic 'Braveheart' (1995) was Gibson’s second opportunity as director, in which he played the lead role of 13th-century Scottish rebel and hero William Wallace. 'Ransom' (1996) was a fast-paced kidnap story that had Gibson playing rich airline owner Tom Mullen, with Rene Russo and Gary Sinise. Julia Roberts starred with Gibson in romantic thriller 'Conspiracy Theory' (1997). Also, that year were two uncredited cameo roles, as Scott the Body Piercer in 'Fathers' Day' (1997) and as Frances' father in 'FairyTale: A True Story' (1997). Then came 'Lethal Weapon 4' (1998) and the next year, Gibson provided the voice for one episode of the cult television series 'The Simpsons' (1999). He played Porter in 'Payback' (1999), a remake of the 1968 crime thriller that starred Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson.

Wim Wenders directed 'The Million Dollar Hotel' (2000) in which Gibson played FBI agent Detective Skinner alongside Milla Jovovich and Jeremy Davies. Gibson played Lt. Col. Hal Moore opposite Madeleine Stowe as Julie Moore in 'We Were Soldiers' (2002), a true story about the Vietnam War. In 'Signs' (2002) he was the Reverend Graham Hess and Joaquin Phoenix played his brother, Merrill Hess, in a story involving crop circles, car accidents and tests of faith. Next came 'The Singing Detective' (2003), in which Gibson played a psychotherapist with Robert Downey Jr, Robin Wright Penn, and Katie Holmes.

In 'Paparazzi' (2004), which he produced, Gibson played an uncredited role as an Anger Management Therapy patient. The need to reconnect with his spiritual side and his own strong religious upbringing inspired him to direct and produce the film 'The Passion of the Christ' (2004). It had been ten years in the research and making and Gibson reportedly spent $25 million of his own money on the project. The blockbuster, created by Icon Productions, the production company co-owned by Gibson and Bruce Davey, was surrounded by controversy before the film was even released. Not since Martin Scorsese’s 'The Last Temptation of Christ' (1988) had a religious movie caused such a stir. The film told the story of the last hours of Christ in harrowing detail, vividly portraying his violent beatings and humiliation and made for intensely disturbing viewing.

Inspired by this success, Gibson went on to direct the epic 'Apocalypto' and was also an executive producer, producer, and writer. The title is Greek for "new beginning" or "unveiling". The film is set during the time of the decline of the Mayan civilization 600 years ago. As in 'The Passion of the Christ' (2004), Gibson used local dialect - in this case, Yucatec Maya – and unknown actors. Once again this was self-financed by Gibson, with Icon Productions retaining the international rights.

Gibson starred to film in 'The Edge of Darkness' as a homicide detective investigating his daughter's death in 2010. He then appeared alongside Jodie Foster, who also directed 'The Beaver' in 2011 as a troubled husband and executive who adopts a beaver hand-puppet as his sole mean of communication. In 2012, Gibson starred in 'Get the Gringo' playing a career criminal placed in a tough prison by Mexican officials for nine years. His latest roles include 'Machete Kills' (2013), 'The Expendables 3' (2014) and 'Blood Father' (2015).

Achievements

• 

  An international movie star and a member of so-called Australian New Wave, Mel Gibson held the status of action-adventure movies authority since the 1980s for about 20 years. He then reached pinnacle of success as director and producer since 1990s. His reputation in the realms is definitely on the rise.
  
  Gibson won two Academy Awards out of three nominations, for Best Director and Best picture, both for Braveheart. Hacksaw Ridge directed by Gibson received two Academy Awards, for Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing. The actor has one Golden Globe Award to his credit, again for his directional work in Braveheart, six People's Choice Awards, five Australian Film Institute Awards, including its Global Achievement Award in recognition of his contribution to acting, one Critic's Choice Award, and many other notable distinctions.
  
  In 1985, Mel Gibson was the first person who received the title of the Sexiest Man Alive from People magazine. The periodical featured him several times among 50 Most Beautiful People in the world. The Empire magazine put Gibson on 12 place in its Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list in 1997.
  
  Also in 1985, he was named the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres but rejected the title as a protest against France's restart of nuclear testing in the Southwest Pacific. In 1997, Gibson was named the honorary Officer of the Order of Australia, the country’s highest honor.
  
  Gibson became the first Australian-raised actor who received $1,000,000 for a movie role.
  
  There are Gibson's hands and footprints on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
  
  

Works

More photos

• movie

  • The Professor and the Madman

    (Based on the best-selling novel, The Professor and the Ma...)

    2019
  • Edge of Darkness

    (When Thomas Craven's only child is murdered on the steps ...)

    2010
  • Tim

    (Based on a novel by Colleen McCullough, this "May-Decembe...)

    1979
  • Conspiracy Theory

    (Academy Award-winner Mel Gibson stars as a comedically pa...)

    1997
  • The Passion of the Christ

    (Jim Caviezel and Monica Bellucci star in this famous epic...)

    2004
  • Forever Young

    (Academy Award-winner Mel Gibson stars in this romantic ac...)

    1992
  • Maverick

    (With more twists than a switchback trail and more sleight...)

    1994
  • Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

    (Mad Max joins forces with nuclear holocaust survivors to ...)

    1981
  • The Expendables 3

    (In "The Expendables 3", Barney, Christmas and the rest of...)

    2014
  • Machete Kills

    (Machete returns to stop a crazed global terrorist from st...)

    2013
  • Payback

    (Mel Gibson portrays Porter, a career criminal bent on rev...)

    1999
  • What Women Want

    (After an accident, a chauvenistic executive gains the abi...)

    2000
  • Gallipoli

    (Two Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war...)

    1981
  • Mad Max

    (Set in the not too distant future, Mad Max is a chilling ...)

    1979
  • Hamlet

    (Mel Gibson plays the title role of a young Danish prince ...)

    1990
  • Blood Father

    (Mel Gibson is John Link, an ex-convict who fights to prot...)

    2016
  • The Man without a Face

    (In his first-class directing debut, Mel Gibson stars in t...)

    1993
  • Air America

    (A young pilot finds himself recruited into a covert and c...)

    1990
  • The Year of Living Dangerously

    (A hot-shot Australian reporter covering the turmoil of re...)

    1982
  • Signs

    (Mel Gibson plays a former minister who must lead his fami...)

    2002
  • Dragged Across Concrete

    (After being suspended without pay for using excessive for...)

    2018
  • The Patriot

    (A reluctant South Carolina farmer is forced to fight the ...)

    2000
  • Braveheart

    (William Wallace, a commoner, unites the 13th Century Scot...)

    1995
  • Lethal Weapon

    (Two tough cops: one carries a lethal weapon, the other is...)

    1987
  • We Were Soldiers

    (The year is 1965 and America is at war with North Vietnam...)

    2002
  • Ransom

    (A father withholds ransom from his son's kidnappers.)

    1996
  • The Bounty

    (Based on the novel, "Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian," th...)

    1984

Religion

Mel Gibson was raised in a giant Catholic family of 11 children as a Sedevacantist traditionalist Catholic. Traditionalist Catholicism was actually started by Gibson’s father, Hutton Gibson4 , who was a rabid anti-Semite.

Politics

When it comes to politics, Gibson thinks it’s all a show. Presidents and Prime Ministers are all puppets of some grand master who runs the world from the shadows.

Views

Quotations: "After about 20 years of marriage, I'm finally starting to scratch the surface of what women want. And I think the answer lies somewhere between conversation and chocolate."

"It's a wise man who understands that every day is a new beginning, because boy, how many mistakes do you make in a day? I don't know about you, but I make plenty. You can't turn the clock back, so you have to look ahead."

"I am politically incorrect, that's true. Political correctness to me is just intellectual terrorism. I find that really scary, and I won't be intimidated into changing my mind. Everyone isn't going to love you all the time."

"I have learned that a bitter experience can make you stronger. I now boastfully say that I have a hide like a rhinoceros... and I'm smiling. It's an interesting thing."

"Change is always preceded by a little pain. Some people can change and they don't have to go through so many painful things. But I think that I'm of a personality that I'm a little stubborn, so it's tough for me."

"Life is life, and one has experiences that are painful and some that are very pleasant, and one has reward and sacrifice and more reward and disappointment and joy and happiness, and it's always going to be the same."

"You ask anybody what their number one fear is, and it's public humiliation. Multiply that on a global scale, and that's what I've been through."

"We're all dying. We're all in the process of oxidizing. Everyone of us is in the process of oxidizing, so to sort of interrupt one aspect of that while everything else goes on, it's a freak show."

"The thing we're all looking for is happiness, and if we achieve just a modicum of that or even a little piece of serenity even for five minutes a day, we're very lucky."

"I like going into different styles of acting and exploring stuff I haven't done before."

"I'll tell you what I did need to learn was tolerance, and I think I've been actually given a daily opportunity to practice that, and it's - it's - and I know that that sounds almost like a backhanded slap, and it is in a way because I haven't been successful at it every day."

"I think any kind of hiatus one takes in an artistic journey is going to make a huge difference. The pause will inform the choices that you make."

"Acting feels different. I'm not sure exactly what that is, but it used to mean a lot more. Maybe that sounds like I'm throwing it away and I'm not, I'll still do the best damn job I can, but it doesn't mean the same thing. I'm going to get the answer for myself one of these days. It's the male menopause, that's what it is."

"My whole approach to wardrobe is, throw it in a suitcase and make sure they don't press it, for Pete's sake, so I can try to display some rumpled charm. Actually, I'm just a pig. I've got coffee stains on my pants. I think they're coffee stains, anyway."

"I got the acting bug back because I felt like all of a sudden maybe after all these years, maybe I might have something to offer again. I walked away from it after 'Signs' because I just felt I was a bit stale and it wasn't ringing my bells, so I focused on directing, writing and producing."

"I think everything is pretty well preordained - even your mistakes."

Personality

Many of Gibson's works, both as actor and director, are centered on an oppressed person who struggles for justice. It may be the reason he has often chosen intense style of acting.

Physical Characteristics: Mel Gibson has piercing blue eyes and deep rough-sounding voice.

Quotes from others about the person

• Mr. Gibson recalls the young Steve McQueen... I can't define 'star quality,' but whatever it is, Mr. Gibson has it." - Vincent Canby, film and theatre critic
  
  "The pre-eminent religious filmmaker in the United States." - Matt Zoller Seitz, movie and television critic, author, moviemaker
  
  "Not the sort of actor you'd think would make an ideal Hamlet, but he had enormous integrity and intelligence." - Paul Scofield, actor
  
  "He has a very basic sense of humor. It's a bit lavatorial and not very sophisticated." - Helena Bonham Carter, actress

Interests

• Writers

  Ray Bradbury "451 degrees Fahrenheit"

Connections

Mel Gibson met Robyn Moore in the early 1970’s when they both rented rooms in the same house in Adelaide, Australia. She worked as a dental nurse and Mel was just an upcoming actor who had not yet hit it big. They stayed together even as the acting career of Mel exploded as a result of his major role in 1979’s Mad Max. The couple married in 1980. Their marriage lasted for twenty six years, until Robyn filed for a divorce in 2006. The divorce was finalized in 2011. Together they had seven children, Hannah, twins Edward and Christopher, William, Louis, Milo, and Thomas. Milo Gibson followed his father's steps and became an actor.

Gibson then had a relationship with a Russian singer-songwriter and pianist Oksana Grigorieva. Grigorieva gave birth to Gibson's daughter Lucia in 2009, a year before the couple broke up.

Mel Gibson's current partner is a former champion equestrian vaulter and writer Rosalind Ross. Ross and Gibson have one son, Lars Gerard.

Father:

Hutton Gibson

Hutton Peter Gibson (born August 26, 1918) is an American writer on Sedevacantism, a World War II veteran, and the 1968 Jeopardy! grand champion.

Mother:

Anne Patricia (Reilly) Gibson

(1918 - 1990)

ex partner:

Oksana Grigorieva

life partner:

Rosalind Ross

She is a former champion equestrian vaulter.

ex-wife:

Robyn Moore Gibson

Robyn Moore Gibson is an Australian public speaker, voice-over artist, and television personality. Robyn is also well-known for voicing many cartoon characters over almost four decades. Her career as a voice-over artist includes her work in many radio advertisements and television commercials. Among her radio shows, 'How Green was My Cactus,' is one of the longest-running satire shows in Australia. Robyn Moore is not only a celebrity but also a warm-hearted philanthropist as she actively involves herself in various fundraising events. She also supports the 'Make a Wish' organization that works towards the welfare of children.

Daughter:

Hannah Gibson

She was born in 1980.

Son:

Christopher Gibson

He is an accomplished landscape photographer.

Son:

William Gibson

He was born in 1985.

Son:

Louis Gibson

He was born in 1988.

Son:

Milo Gibson

He has starred in All The Devil's Men, Breaking and Exiting, Gangster Land, and Hacksaw Ridge.

Son:

Thomas Gibson

He was born in 1999.

Son:

Edward Gibson

He was born in 1982.

Daughter:

Lucia Gibson

She was born on on October 30, 2009.

Son:

Lars Gerard Gibson

He was born on January 20, 2017.

grandmother:

Eva Mylott

She was a famous opera singer in Australia.

Brother:

Donal Gibson

Friend:

Robert Downey Jr.

Friend:

Danny Glover

Friend:

Richard Tiffany Gere

Richard Tiffany Gere(born August 31, 1949) is an American actor and activist. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol. He went on to star in several hit films, including An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, Primal Fear, Runaway Bride, Arbitrage and Chicago, for which he won a Golden Globe Award as Best Actor, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the Best Cast.

References

• Mel Gibson: Man on a Mission Author Wensley Clarkson provides an in-depth glimpse into the life of an actor who is a fiercely private man about whom relatively little is really known.
  2004
• Lethal Hero: The Mel Gibson Biography
  1993
• Mel Gibson The book presents the life and career of the Australian-raised, American-born actor and movie director.
  1998
• Mel Gibson: Restless Superstar
  1986
• Mel Gibson A Hollywood's Best Film Directors documentary about the Australian actor who directed Braveheart, The Passion of The Christ and Apolcalypto.
  2013