Mel Gibson |
Mel Colmcille Gerard Gibson AO is an American actor and filmmaker (screenwriter, producer, and director).
Gibson was born January 3, 1956 in Peekskill, New York. After his American family moved to Australia from New York state when he was 12, Mel Gibson grew up on Sydneys North Shore. He attended St Leos Catholic College in Wahroonga, then the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).
His first big break came when, after driving a friend to audition for director George Miller, he was invited back to try out himself. "I walked in the room and George was in there,"he says. "He said, Tell me a joke, so I told him a joke. He said, Can you drive? I said, Yeah. Basically that was it."
Gibson says he had no idea this low-budget action film, 1979s Mad Max, would be successful, let alone launch both his and Millers careers. "Film? I didnt know film,"he says. "But you just jump in the drivers seat. You do your level best to try and understand the medium. And everybody was fledgling at that point .. George was a doctor .. everybody was clutching in the dark but they had a basic idea that had a good foundation based in legend, myth and storytelling."
Gibson enjoyed Mad Max: Fury Road, last years fourth instalment, calling it "visually spectacular and marvellously edited". He says he has no regrets about being replaced as Max by Tom Hardy: "I thought about the physical agony, being swung around on some fishing pole."
After acting solidly on stage and in more films, including the landmark Mad Max 2, Gibsons agent, the late Bill Shanahan, urged him to head to Los Angeles. "I said, I dont want to go over there, "he says. " Theyre just going to tell us to FO. But he kept nagging at me, so I went over and we did the rounds. Most people looked at us curiously, like, Who are you? They more or less told us to move on."While there had been the odd Australian star in Hollywood before - notably Errol Flynn, Rod Taylor and Peter Finch - it was rare then for Australian actors to try their luck in LA.
But when Paramount bought and then screened Peter Weirs 1981 classic Gallipoli - in which Gibson starred - he says "all the people Id seen who were dismissive, all of a sudden wanted to call". As a fresh, edgy talent in Hollywood, he followed up another masterful Weir film, The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), with The River (1984), The Bounty (1984), Mrs Soffel (1984) and, back in Australia, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985). After a spell on his cattle property in Victoria, he returned to LA to shoot the buddy comedy Lethal Weapon (1987). It was a hit, and Gibson discovered, at 31, what it was like to be very, very famous.
The impressive cast reflects Gibsons standing as a director of powerful, emotional, graphically told stories. His last three movies, the Scottish epic Braveheart (1995), religious drama The Passion of the Christ (2004) and Apocalypto (2006), have collectively grossed $US940 million and won five Oscars from 16 nominations.
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