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Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson, AO (born January 3, 1956) is an American-Australian actor, historian, Academy Award-winning director, producer and screenwriter. Born in the United States, Gibson moved to Australia when he was 12 years old and he later studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. After establishing himself as a household name with the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon series, Gibson went on to direct and star in the Academy Award-winning Braveheart. Gibson's direction of Braveheart made him the sixth actor-turned-filmmaker to receive an Oscar for Best Director. In 2004, he directed and produced The Passion of the Christ, a blockbuster movie that portrayed the last hours of the life of Jesus. Gibson is an honorary Officer of the Order of Australia and was ranked the world's most powerful celebrity in the annual list by Forbes magazine in 2004. Though introduced to American audiences as Australian, the strikingly handsome, blue-eyed Mel Gibson actually hailed from Peekskill, New York. (He and his family had emigrated Down Under in 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War.) After a season onstage with Sydney's South Australian Theatre Company where he portrayed both Oedipus and Henry IV, he made his name as the leather-clad, post-apocalyptic action hero of George Miller's "Mad Max" and in the radically different "Tim" (both 1979), for which he picked up his first of two Australian Film Institute Awards as Best Actor, playing a retarded handyman in love with Piper Laurie. Peter Weir's World War I drama "Gallipoli" and "Mad Max 2" (both 1981), Miller's transcendent follow-up to "Mad Max" (released in the USA as "The Road Warrior" since American audiences knew nothing of the barely-released earlier movie), established Gibson as an international star. "The Year of Living Dangerously" (1982), Weir's film about the political upheavals of 1960s Indonesia, gave him his first romantic lead opposite Sigourney Weaver and launched him as a sex symbol. Gibson was born in Peekskill, New York, the sixth of eleven children. He is the second son of Hutton Gibson and Irish-born Anne Reilly Gibson. His paternal grandmother was the Australian opera soprano, Eva Mylott (1875–1920). One of Gibson's younger brothers, Donal, is also an actor. Gibson's first name comes from a 5th century Irish Saint, Mel, founder of the diocese of Ardagh which contains most of his mother's native County, while his second name, Columcille, is also linked to an Irish saint. Columcille is also the name of the parish in County Longford where Anne Reilly was born and raised. Because of his mother, Mel Gibson holds dual citizenship in America and the Republic of Ireland. Hutton Gibson relocated his family to Sydney, Australia in 1968, after winning $145,000 in a work related injury lawsuit against New York Central on February 14, 1968. The family moved when Gibson was twelve. The move to Hutton's mother's native Australia was for economic reasons and because he thought the Australian military would reject his oldest son for the Vietnam War draft. Gibson was educated by Christian Brothers at St. Leo's Catholic College in Wahroonga, New South Wales during his High School years. Gibson graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney in 1977. His acting career began in Australia with appearances in television series, including The Sullivans, Cop Shop and Punishment. He made his film debut in the 1977 Australian film Summer City. Gibson's physical appearance made him a natural for leading male roles in action projects such as the "Mad Max" series of films, Peter Weir's Gallipoli, and the "Lethal Weapon" series of films. Later, Gibson expanded into a variety of acting projects including human dramas such as Hamlet, and comedic roles such as those in Maverick and What Women Want. His most artistic and financial success came with films where he expanded beyond acting into directing and producing, such as 1993's The Man Without a Face, 1995's Braveheart, 2004's Passion of the Christ and 2006's Apocalypto. Gibson was considered for roles in Batman, GoldenEye, Amadeus, Gladiator, The Golden Child, X-Men, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Runaway Bride and Primary Colors. Actor Sean Connery once suggested Gibson should play the next James Bond to Connery's M. Gibson turned down the role, reportedly because he feared being typecast. After a turn as a reluctantly mutinous Fletcher Christian opposite Anthony Hopkins' Captain Bligh in "The Bounty", Gibson made an inauspicious American debut in "The River" (both 1984), playing a character so coldly stubborn that few could empathize. The well-made but gloomy "Mrs. Soffel" (also 1984) followed quickly before he returned to Australia to wrap up the "Mad Max" series with "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" (1985), a cumbersome satire with less action, a bigger budget, Tina Turner and Max, mostly on foot, looking like a wandering prophet. Gibson then took two years off to concentrate on his family, returning to the screen in "Lethal Weapon" (1987), for which he created perhaps his most popular character, Martin Riggs, an explosive homicide cop paired with the long-suffering Danny Glover. The film propelled Gibson to superstardom, spawned three sequels (to date) and allowed him to incorporate his innate playfulness as part of an unusually rich characterization for a modern action hero. Called at various times "practical joker", "eternal adolescent" and "fun-loving fourth Stooge", Gibson has remained a "regular guy" who doesn't take himself or his work too seriously and consistently comes across as relaxed and natural. Gibson got his breakthrough role as the leather-clad post-apocalyptic survivor in George Miller's Mad Max. The film was independently financed and had a reported budget of $300,000 AUD — of which $15,000 was paid to Mel Gibson for his performance. The film achieved incredible success, earning $100 million world wide. It held a record in Guinness Book of Records as the highest profit-to-cost ratio of a motion picture, and only lost the record in 2000 to The Blair Witch Project. The film was awarded four Australian Film Institute Awards in 1979. Gibson almost did not get the role that made him a star. His agent got him an audition for Mad Max, but the night before, he got into a drunken brawl with three men at a party, resulting in a swollen nose, a broken jawline, and various other bruises. Mel showed up at the audition the next day looking like a "black and blue pumpkin" (his own words). Mel did not expect to get the role and only went to accompany his friend. However, the casting agent told Mel to come back in two weeks, telling him "we need freaks." When Mel did come back, he was not recognized because his wounds had healed almost completely, and received the part. This incident is listed in Ripley's Believe It or Not! When the film was first released in America, all the voices, including that of Mel Gibson's character, were dubbed with U.S. accents at the behest of the distributor, American International Pictures, for fear that audiences would not take warmly to actors speaking entirely with Australian accents. The original film spawned two sequels: Mad Max 2 (known in North America as The Road Warrior), and Mad Max 3 (known in North America as Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome). A fourth movie, Mad Max 4: Fury Road, has been considered but has not been produced. In 1984, starred as Fletcher Christian in The Bounty. According to unauthorised biographer Wensley Clarkson, Gibson and costar Anthony Hopkins, did not get along during the shoot. At the time, Anthony Hopkins was a teetotaler, and Mel Gibson was struggling with alcoholism. Gibson frequently spent his evenings in local saloons and took to mixing two shots of Scotch with his beer. He dubbed the concoction "Liquid Violence". In one incident, Gibson's face was severely cut up in a bar room brawl and the film's shooting schedule had to be rearranged while he was flown to a hospital in Papeete. Gibson moved into more mainstream commercial filmmaking with the popular buddy cop Lethal Weapon series, which began with the 1987 original. In the films he played LAPD Detective Martin Riggs, a recently widowed Vietnam veteran with a death wish and a penchant for violence and gunplay. In the films, he is partnered with a reserved family man named Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover). This series would come to exemplify the action genre's so-called buddy film. The two actors were trained in two different schools of acting. Gibson is classically trained and Glover is a method actor. Four sequels were produced in 1987, 1989, 1992 and 1998. Gibson made the unusual transition from the action to classical genres, playing the melancholic Danish prince in Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet. Gibson was cast alongside such experienced Shakespearean actors as Ian Holm, Alan Bates, and Paul Scofield. He described working with his fellow cast members as similar to being "thrown into the ring with Mike Tyson". The film met with critical and marketing success and remains steady in DVD sales. It also marked the transformation of Mel Gibson from action hero to serious actor and filmmaker. Gibson stated that when the Braveheart script arrived and was recommended by his agents, he rejected it outright because he thought he was too old to play the part. After careful thought, he decided that he wanted to direct the picture, and direct only. He finally agreed to act due to pressure from the film's producers. Gibson received five Academy Awards, Best Director and Best Picture, for his 1995 direction of Braveheart. In the movie, Gibson starred as Sir William Wallace, a 13th century martyr of Scottish nationalism. He said in interviews that he was attempting to make a film similar to the big screen epics he had loved as a child, such as Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus and William Wyler's The Big Country. The filming began in the Scottish Highlands. After learning that the intended filming locations were among the rainiest spots in Europe, the shooting was moved to the Republic of Ireland, where members of the Irish Army Reserve worked as extras in the film's many battles. The Battle of Stirling sequence in Braveheart is considered one of the best directed battle scenes in all of film history. Gibson sandwiched the meandering "Tequila Sunrise" (1988) and even more disappointing "Bird on a Wire" (1990) around a blockbuster "Lethal Weapon 2" (1989), and his patented swagger could not save the alleged action-comedy "Air America" (1990) from the inadequacy of its script. Next, in a surprising career move, he opted to take his shot at Shakespeare's Melancholy Dane in Franco Zeffirelli's "Hamlet" (1990). While the film was problematic, Gibson turned in a finely rendered portrait of the famed prince in the first project produced by his Icon Productions. He continued in a more sentimental vein with the sudsy "Forever Young" (1992), scored another huge hit with "Lethal Weapon 3" (1993), then made his directorial debut with "The Man Without a Face" (1993), a drama in which he hid his good looks behind the heavy makeup of a burn victim. After this mildly popular effort, Gibson returned to rowdy commercial fare with "Maverick" (1994), teaming for a fourth time with "Lethal Weapon" director Richard Donner for a 90s adaptation of the 60s TV Western-comedy series, which shrewdly parlayed his dashing rogue qualities into more box-office bliss. Gibson returned to the director's chair for "Braveheart" (1995), a project far bigger than any with which he had been previously involved in any capacity. Clad in a kilt, sporting blue war paint and wielding a big sword, Gibson starred as Sir William Wallace, a 13th-century Scottish nobleman persecuted for his efforts to free Scotland from English rule. Wags dubbed the film "Mad Mac", but the Academy deemed it worthy, voting it five awards including Best Picture and honoring Gibson as Best Director. Later that same year, in addition to providing the speaking voice for John Smith in Disney's "Pocahontas,” Gibson made his screen singing debut. His collaboration with Ron Howard, "Ransom" (1996), another box-office hit that earned $35 million its first week, preceded "Conspiracy Theory" (1997), his fifth film with Donner and a surprising commercial dud compared to their previous work, especially with Julia Roberts starring opposite Gibson. The actor-director pair rebounded with "Lethal Weapon 4" (1998), its healthy box office reaffirming Riggs-Murtaugh (in reportedly their last outing) as a bankable team. Gibson next starred as a murderous thief bent on getting his "Payback" (1999), a loose reworking of the same Donald Westlake novel that had inspired John Boorman's 1967 classic thriller "Point Blank". Playing to Gibson's strengths, the urban Western veered problematically from dark and sinister to comic and whimsical but still managed a respectable box office. His star power could not make Wim Wenders' "The Million Dollar Hotel" (2000) a mainstream success, and though the director's visual skills were on display, the underdeveloped, not very interesting story made it a tough sell at the art-houses. Gibson then joined "popcorn" specialists Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich for Emmerich's Revolutionary War drama "The Patriot" (also 2000), scripted by Robert Rodat. Essentially a Western, "The Patriot" cast him as a retired "gunslinger,” still spooked by his memories of the French and Indian War, who clings fast to his pacifism until his son falls into enemy hands, triggering his course of revenge. After voicing Rocky the Rooster in the animated "Chicken Run", a sort of feathered "Great Escape,” he rounded out the busy year as star of Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy "What Women Want" (both 2000). Aside from making Gibson vehicles, his Icon Productions has produced projects like the Beethoven biopic "Immortal Beloved" (1994, directed by Bernard Rose), the remake of "Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina" (1997, also helmed by Rose), the black comedy "Ordinary Decent Criminals" (a fictionalized version of the life of Irish thief Martin Cahill) and the above average ABC biopic "The Three Stooges" (both 2000). In 2002, Gibson appeared in the war film "We Were Soldiers," directed by Gibson's "Braveheart" scribe Randall Wallace and in "Signs," the much anticipated M. Night Shyamalan movie about crop circles. The actor was almost unrecognizable behind wig of thinning hair and bulbous prosthetics in the 2003 film adaptation of Dennis Potter's acclaimed "The Singing Detective," and while the film did not burn up the box office reports Gibson, who also produced, earned personal kudos for employing his old "Air America" co-star Robert Downey, Jr., to play the lead, despite Downey's prior difficulties with drug arrests. In 2004 Gibson directed The Passion of the Christ which was based on the last twelve hours of the life of Jesus Christ according to the Four Evangelists and Roman Catholic Sacred Tradition. It was rendered multilingually in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin. Gibson co-wrote the screenplay with writer Benedict Fitzgerald and financed the film himself. The filming took place on location in Matera, Italy and Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Prior to making the film, Gibson constructed a traditionalist Catholic chapel on his California estate. Reviews were mixed, with critics ranging from praising the film for its realistic depiction of Jesus' final hours from a Catholic point of view and criticism of violence, manipulation and charges of anti-Semitism. Asked if his movie would "upset Jews", Gibson responded, "It's not meant to. I think it's meant to just tell the truth. I want to be as truthful as possible." Accusations of anti-Semitism were fueled by news reports that Mel Gibson's father, Hutton Gibson, is a vocal Sedevacantist who has alleged that much of the Holocaust is "fiction". After Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote against the unreleased film and called Gibson's publicist a “Holocaust denier defender,” Gibson was overheard by The New Yorker telling his publicist, "I want to kill him. I want his intestines on a stick. I want to kill his dog." On his decision to cut the scene in which Caiaphas says "his blood be on us and on our children" soon after Pontius Pilate washes his hands of Jesus, Gibson said in mid-2003: "I wanted it in. My brother said I was wimping out if I didn't include it. But, man, if I included that in there, they'd be coming after me at my house. They'd come to kill me." In 2004, he further commented: "It's one little passage, and I believe it, but I don't and never have believed it refers to Jews, and implicates them in any sort of curse. It's directed at all of us, all men who were there, and all that came after. His blood is on us, and that's what Jesus wanted. But I finally had to admit that one of the reasons I felt strongly about keeping it, aside from the fact it's true, is that I didn't want to let someone else dictate what could or couldn't be said." The movie grossed US$611,899,420 worldwide and $370,782,930 in the US alone, a figure, at that time, surpassed any motion picture starring Gibson. It became the eighth highest-grossing film in history and the highest-grossing rated R film of all time. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Music Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Makeup at the 77th Academy Awards and won the People's Choice Award for Best Drama. Gibson next ignited a wildfire of controversy with his third directorial effort "The Passion of the Christ" (2004), a hard-hitting, highly bloody depiction of the Gospels in which Gibson—a devout Catholic who was inspired to make the film after struggling with his own personal demons—wanted to illustrate the severe suffering and selfless sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Studios were reluctant to back the project, not for its explicit religious views, but because he wanted to film “Passion” in the original Aramaic spoken at the time of Christ, forcing Gibson to pony up $20 million of his own money to finance the film. Long before it was released, “Passion” came under intense scrutiny from some religious groups and was criticized early on for intimations of anti-Semitism in the way Jews were shown to contribute to Jesus' persecution—an element that was not aided by some injudicious, intolerant-sounding comments made by Gibson's father, Hutton, who had said publicly that the Holocaust was logistically impossible. Critics were polarized by the film, many citing the violence and gore as excessive, while others praised Gibson's unflinching portrayal. With interest in the controversial film at a fever pitch when in opened, "The Passion of the Christ" debuted to box office blockbuster-sized grosses, thanks to the legions of true believers who boarded church busses and flocked to theaters in droves. “The Passion of the Christ” became a runaway sensation—and perhaps the most profitable independent film of all time—taking in over $370 million in domestic box office and putting the director into the enviable position being able to make anything he wanted for his next project. Some hoped that he would return to “Braveheart” territory, but Gibson instead chose to direct “Apocalypto” (2006), a sprawling and rather bizarre-looking film set in the ancient Maya civilization that focused on a young man’s perilous journey into a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Details about the story remained under tight wraps, though it became known that Gibson shot the entire film in the obscure Mayan language, again risking the alienation of American theatergoers impatient with reading subtitles. Gibson also shot the film with unknown actors, adding further complications to an already tricky release for Disney. But little did the distributor know what lay ahead. Gibson's next historical epic, Apocalypto, was released to theaters on December 8, 2006. The film is set in Mesoamerica, during the fifteenth century. It focuses on the decline of the Maya civilization which reached its zenith around 600 AD, collapsed around 900 AD, and fell into a period of competing city states until the Conquistadors invaded. Dialogue is spoken in the Yucatec Maya language. It features a cast of actors from Mexico City, the Yucatán, and some Native Americans from the United States. While Gibson financed the film himself, Disney released it in specific markets. The film is set against the turbulent end times of the once great Maya civilization. The title is a Greek term which means "an unveiling" or "new beginning", but the movie is not religiously themed or connected to the biblical Apocalypse. Gibson pre-screened Apocalypto to two predominantly Native American audiences in Oklahoma, at the Riverwind Casino in Goldsby, owned by the Chickasaw Nation, and at Cameron University in Lawton. On July 28, 2006, Gibson was pulled over in his Lexus on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, CA for doing 87 mph in a 45 mph zone. The police conducted a roadside sobriety test, including a breathalyzer that indicated a blood-alcohol level of 0.12 well over California’s 0.08 limit. Cuffed and stuffed for drunk driving, Gibson railed against the arresting officers, one of whom the actor believed was Jewish, spouting anti-Semitic slurs and blaming Jews for “all the wars in the world.” Back in jail, a belligerent Gibson continued his racist rants while trying to urinate in his cell and demeaning a female officer by calling her “sugar tits.” Released on $5000 bond, Gibson was assailed from all corners in the media once word spread of the incident on the Internet. Gibson blamed his outburst on a relapse into alcoholism he had publicly admitted problems with booze and drugs in the past. He later released a statement through his publicist that began: “I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable.” Many, particularly in Hollywood, felt his words were disingenuous, though Disney’s President of Production, Oren Aviv, himself Jewish, accepted Gibson’s apology. Meanwhile, Gibson went straight into rehab and after nearly three months of sobriety, he gave his first interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, who prodded a humbled Gibson about what happened that evening. Though he never claimed to be a racist, Gibson did confirm that his remarks were anti-Semitic. The ultimate judge of public disapproval over his outburst remained to be seen with the release of “Apocalypto,” which was released in early December 2006. In December 2006, Gibson told "The Sun" newspaper that he does not want to act in another film, because he wants to just direct movies. In March 2007, Gibson told a screening audience that he was preparing another script with Farhad Safinia about the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Gibson's company has long owned the rights to The Professor and the Madman, which tells the story of the creation of the OED. Gibson has dismissed the rumors that he is considering directing a film about Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa. Asked in September 2007 if he planned to return to acting and specifically to action roles, Gibson said: "I think I’m too old for that, but you never know. I just like telling stories. Entertainment is valid and I guess I’ll probably do it again before it's over. You know, do something that people won’t get mad with me for." Gibson met his wife Robyn Moore in the late 1970s soon after filming Mad Max when they were both tenants at the same house in Adelaide. At the time, Robyn was a dental nurse and Mel was an unknown actor working for the South Australian Theatre Company. On June 7, 1980, they married in a Catholic Church in Forestville, New South Wales.[31] Gibson has referred to his wife as "my Rock of Gibraltar, only much prettier" and said, "life is about love and commitment and screw anyone who thinks that's a cliché." They have one daughter, six sons, and one grandchild.[32] Their seven children are Hannah (born 1980), twins Edward and Christian (born 1982), William (born 1985), Louis (born 1988), Milo (born 1990), and Thomas (born 1999). Daughter Hannah Gibson married Blues musician Kenny Wayne Shepherd on September 16, 2006. Mel Gibson's spokesman had previously denied the rumor that Hannah was planning to become a nun. Gibson has an avid interest in real estate investments, with multiple properties in Malibu, California, several locations in Costa Rica, a private island in Fiji and properties in Australia. In December 2004, Gibson sold his 300-acre (1.2 km²) Australian ranch in the Kiewa Valley for $6 million. Also in December 2004, Gibson purchased Mago Island in Fiji from Tokyu Corporation of Japan for $15 million. Descendants of the original native inhabitants of Mago (who were displaced in the 1860s) have protested the purchase. Gibson stated it was his intention to retain the pristine environment of the undeveloped island. In early 2005, he sold his 45,000-acre (180 km²) Montana ranch to a neighbor for an undisclosed multimillion dollar sum. In April 2007 he purchased a 400-acre (1.6 km²) ranch in Costa Rica for $26 million, and in July 2007 he sold his 76 acre Tudor estate in Connecticut (which he purchased in 1994 for $9 million) for $40 million to an unnamed buyer. Also that month, he sold a Malibu property for $30 million that he had purchased for $24 million two years before. In keeping with his interest in organic foods, Gibson has used his ranch properties to produce all-organic beef. Mel Gibson has eclectic tastes in music and is particularly fond of Italian opera. He is a lover of Italian Renaissance artwork and is a great admirer of the 17th century artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Much of the cinematography in The Passion of the Christ was modeled after the style of this painter. Gibson's height is disputed. Varied sources place him from 5'6" (170 cm) to 5'11" (180 cm). In 2002 Gibson stood next to interviewer Michael Parkinson (5 ft 10 in) and demonstrated that they were about the same height. It should be noted however that at the time of the interview Parkinson was 67 years old and probably not at his peak height. It has been widely reported that Gibson was diagnosed with bipolar disorder following a state of severe depression in the early 1990s. He has not publicly confirmed whether this is the case. Mel is also a huge fan of the Three Stooges, and executive produced a made-for-TV biography movie for ABC in 2000 based on the comedy team. Gibson has been parodied by popular culture, even joining in some of the satire himself. When hosting SNL in 1989, Gibson used his monologue to mock his occupation of “movie star” as “high reward, low effort.” In 1999, Gibson, satirized his persona as an action hero during a guest appearance on The Simpsons episode titled Beyond Blunderdome. During the episode, Gibson complains that his remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is "missing something." When assured that nothing is wrong with it, he frets, "But I don't shoot anybody!" Gibson was both spoofed by "South Park" and "Family Guy" regarding his film The Passion of the Christ. In the "South Park" episode "The Passion of the Jew", Kyle Broflovski is forced to admit that Eric Cartman was right about the way the Jewish people have treated Jesus as portrayed in the film. When "Family Guy" returned to television in 2005 with the episode "North by North Quahog", (a spoof of the Alfred Hitchcock film North by Northwest) Peter Griffin and Lois Griffin attempt to get a rid of a fictitious sequel to The Passion called "Passion of the Christ 2: Crucify This" with Jim Caviezel reprising the role of Jesus and Chris Tucker playing his sidekick in reference to the Rush Hour movies. It can be argued that "Family Guy" may have been a little nicer to Gibson than "South Park" was; he may even like "Family Guy" better than "South Park." On the DVD commentary for "North by North Quahog", "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, who also wrote the episode, said that Gibson could "take a hint" at the satirization of him noting his good sense of humor. |
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