Mel Gibson is an Australian actor and filmmaker who studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. After roles in several Australian films and TV shows, his international career took off with the Mad Max franchise. He became a major Hollywood star with the Lethal Weapon series and later transitioned into directing with Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ. Gibson has won acclaim for his acting in diverse roles as well as his directing and producing through his company Icon Productions.

1. INSPIRATION AS AN ACTOR
MEL GIBSON

2. Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson was born on January 3, 1956, in Peekskill, New York, USA as the sixth of eleven children
to parents Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, and Ann Gibson, who was born in Australia and died in December of
1990. Though born in the US, Mel Gibson and his family moved to New South Wales, Australia. After high school, Mel
studied at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, performing at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts alongside
future film thespians Judy Davis and Geoffrey Rush. After college, Mel had a few stints on stage and starred in a few TV
shows. Eventually, he was chosen to star in Mad Max in 1979 and in a movie called Tim made in 1979, co-starring Piper
Laurie. The small budgeted movie ‘Mad Max’ made him known worldwide, while ‘Tim’ garnered him an award for Best
Actor from the Australian Film Institute which is equivalent to an Oscar. Later, he went on to star in Gallipoli in 1981,
which earned him a second award for Best Actor from the AFI. In 1980, he married Robyn Moore and had seven children.
In 1984, Mel made his American debut in 1984 with ‘The Bounty’, which co-starred Anthony Hopkins. Then in 1987, Mel
starred in what would become his signature series, Lethal Weapon starting in 1987, in which he played "Martin Riggs". In
1990, he took on the interesting starring role in Hamlet, which garnered him some critical praise. He also made the more
endearing Forever Young in 1992 and the somewhat disturbing The Man Without a Face in 1993. 1995 brought his most
famous role as "Sir William Wallace" in Braveheart in 1995, for which he won two Oscars for Best Picture and Best
Director. From there, he made such box office hits as The Patriot in 2000, Ransom in 1996, and Payback 1999. In 2000,
Gibson acted in three films that each grossed over $100 million: The Patriot, Chicken Run, and What Women Want. In
2002, Gibson appeared in the Vietnam War drama We Were Soldiers and M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, which became the
highest-grossing film of Gibson's acting career. While promoting Signs, Gibson said that he no longer wanted to be a
movie star and would only act in film again if the script were truly extraordinary. In 2010, Gibson appeared in Edge of
Darkness, which marked his first starring role since 2002 and was an adaptation of the BBC miniseries, Edge of
Darkness.In 2010, following an outburst at his ex-girlfriend that was made public, Gibson was dropped from the talent
agency of William Morris Endeavor. Today, Mel remains an international superstar mogul, continuously topping the
Hollywood power lists.
HISTORY

3. Mel Gibson studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney -
NIDA. The students at NIDA were classically trained in the British-theater
tradition rather than in preparation for screen acting. As students, Gibson
and actress Judy Davis played the leads in Romeo and Juliet, and
Gibson played the role of Queen Titania in an experimental production of
A Midsummer Night's Dream. After graduation in 1977 ,Mel immediately
began work on the filming of Mad Max, but continued to work as a stage
actor, and joined the State Theatre Company of South Australia in
Adelaide. Gibson's theatrical credits include the character Estragon in
Waiting for Godot, and the role of Biff Loman in a 1982 production of
Death of a Salesman in Sydney. Gibson's most recent theatrical
performance, opposite Sissy Spacek, was the 1993 production of Love
Letters by A. R. Gurney, in Telluride, Colorado
STAGE

4. Gibson's acting career began in 1976, with a role
on the Australian television series The Sullivans.
In his career, Gibson has appeared in 43 films,
including the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon film
series. In addition to acting, Gibson has also
directed four films, including Braveheart and The
Passion of the Christ; produced 11 films; and
written two films. Films either starring or directed
by Mel Gibson have earned over US $2.5 billion,
in the United States alone. Gibson's filmography
includes television series, feature films,
television films, and animated films.
ACTING CAREER

5. Mel Gibson has credited his directors, particularly George Miller, Peter Weir, and Richard Donner, with teaching him the
craft of filmmaking and influencing him as a director. According to Robert Downey, Jr., studio executives encouraged
Gibson in 1989 to try directing, an idea he rebuffed at the time. Gibson made his directorial debut in 1993 with The Man
Without a Face, followed two years later by Braveheart, which earned Gibson the Academy Award for Best Director.
Gibson had long planned to direct a remake of Fahrenheit 451, but in 1999 the project was indefinitely postponed
because of scheduling conflicts. Gibson was scheduled to direct Robert Downey, Jr. in a Los Angeles stage production
of Hamlet in January 2001, but Downey's drug relapse ended the project. In 2002, while promoting We Were Soldiers
and Signs to the press, Gibson mentioned that he was planning to pare back on acting and return to directing. In
September 2002, Gibson announced that he would direct a film called The Passion in Aramaic and Latin with no
subtitles because he hoped to "transcend language barriers with filmic storytelling."In 2004, he released the
controversial film The Passion of the Christ, with subtitles, which he co-wrote, co-produced, and directed. The film went
on to become the highest grossing rated R film of all time with $370,782,930 in U.S. box office sales. Gibson directed a
few episodes of Complete Savages for the ABC network. In 2006, he directed the action-adventure film Apocalypto, his
second film to feature sparse dialogue in a non-English language.
DIRECTER

6. After his success in Hollywood with the Lethal Weapon series,
Gibson began to move into producing and directing. With partner
Bruce Davey, Gibson formed Icon Productions in 1989 in order to
make Hamlet. In addition to producing or co-producing many of
Gibson's own star vehicles, Icon has turned out many other small
films, ranging from Immortal Beloved to An Ideal Husband.
Gibson has taken supporting roles in some of these films, such
as The Million Dollar Hotel and The Singing Detective. Gibson
has also produced a number of projects for television, including a
biopic on The Three Stooges and the 2008 PBS documentary
Carrier. Icon has grown from being just a production company to
also be an international distribution company and film exhibitor in
Australia and New Zealand.
PRODUCER

7. FILMS

8. Gibson got his breakthrough role as the leather-clad post-
apocalyptic survivor in George Miller's Mad Max. The
independently financed blockbuster helped to make him an
international star everywhere but in the United States, where
the actors' Australian accents were dubbed with American
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, is in
development, but both Gibson and George Miller have
indicated that the starring role would go to a younger actor.
MAD MAX

9. The 1981 Peter Weir film, Gallipoli is about a group of young men from rural
Western Australia who enlist in the Australian Imperial Force during World War I.
They are sent to invade the Ottoman Empire, where they take part in the 1915
Gallipoli Campaign. During the course of the movie, the young men slowly lose their
innocence about the war. The climax of the movie centres around the catastrophic
AIF offensive known as the Battle of the Nek. Peter Weir cast Gibson in the role of
Frank Dunne, an Irish-Australian drifter with an intense cynicism about fighting for
the British Empire. Newcomer Mark Lee was recruited to play the idealistic Archy
Hamilton after participating in a photo session for the director. Gibson later recalled:
"I'd auditioned for an earlier film and he told me right up front, 'I'm not going to cast
you for this part. You're not old enough. But thanks for coming in, I just wanted to
meet you.' He told me he wanted me for Gallipoli a couple of years later because I
wasn't the archetypal Australian. He had Mark Lee, the angelic-looking, ideal
Australian kid, and he wanted something of a modern sensibility. He thought the
audience needed someone to relate to of their own time.“ Gibson later said that
Gallipolli is, "Not really a war movie. That's just the backdrop. It's really the story of
two young men.“ The critically acclaimed film helped to further launch Gibson's
career. He won the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role from the Australian Film
Institute.
GALLIPOLI

10. Gibson played a naïve but ambitious journalist opposite Sigourney
Weaver and Linda Hunt in Peter Weir's atmospheric 1982 film The
Year of Living Dangerously, based on the novel of the same name by
Christopher Koch. The movie was both a critical and commercial
success, and the upcoming Australian actor was heavily marketed by
MGM studio. In his review of the film, Vincent Canby of The New
York Times wrote, "If this film doesn't make an international star of
Mr. Gibson, then nothing will. He possesses both the necessary
talent and the screen presence.“ According to John Hiscock of The
Daily Telegraph, the film did, indeed, establish Gibson as an
international talent. Gibson was initially reluctant to accept the role
of Guy Hamilton. "I didn't necessarily see my role as a great
challenge. My character was, like the film suggests, a puppet. And I
went with that. It wasn't some star thing, even though they
advertised it that way." Gibson saw some similarities between
himself and the character of Guy. "He's not a silver-tongued devil.
He's kind of immature and he has some rough edges and I guess
you could say the same for me.“ Gibson has cited this screen
performance as his personal favourite.
THE YEAR OF LIVING
DANGEROUSLY

11. Gibson followed the footsteps of Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, and
Marlon Brando by starring as Fletcher Christian in a cinematic
retelling of the Mutiny on the Bounty. The resulting 1984 film
The Bounty is considered to be the most historically accurate
version. However, Gibson has expressed a belief that the
film's revisionism did not go far enough. He has stated that
his character should have been portrayed as the film's
antagonist. He has further praised Anthony Hopkins's
performance as Lieutenant William Bligh as the best aspect of
the film.
THE BOUNTY

12. LETHAL WEAPON
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.
Following the success of Lethal Weapon, director Richard
Donner and principal cast revisited the characters in three
sequels, Lethal Weapon 2 in 1989, Lethal Weapon 3 in1993,
and Lethal Weapon 4 in 1998. With its fourth instalment, the
Lethal Weapon series embodied "the quintessence of the buddy
cop pic".

13. HAMLET
Gibson made the unusual transition from action to classical
drama, playing William Shakespeare's Danish prince in Franco
Zeffirelli's Hamlet. Gibson was cast alongside experienced
Shakespearean actors Ian Holm, Alan Bates, and Paul Scofield.
He compared working with Scofield to being "thrown into the ring
with Mike Tyson".Scofield said of Gibson "Not the sort of actor
you'd think would make an ideal Hamlet, but he had enormous
integrity and intelligence."

14. FILMS DIRECTED

15. In 1995, Mel Gibson directed, produced, and starred in
Braveheart, a biopic of Sir William Wallace, a Scottish nationalist
who was executed in 1305 for "high treason" against King
Edward I of England. Gibson received two Academy Awards,
Best Director and Best Picture, for his second directorial effort.
In winning the Academy Award for Best Director, Gibson became
only the sixth actor-turned-filmmaker to do so. Braveheart
influenced the Scottish nationalist movement and helped to
revive the film genre of the historical epic; the Battle of Stirling
Bridge sequence is considered by critics to be one of the all-
time-best-directed battle and also personally being one of my
favourite films.
BRAVEHEART

16. Gibson directed, produced, co-wrote, and funded the
2004 film The Passion of the Christ, which chronicled
the passion and death of Jesus. The film was shot
exclusively in Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew. Although
Gibson originally intended to release the film without
subtitles, he eventually relented for theatrical
exhibition. The film sparked divergent reviews, ranging
from high praise to criticism of the violence. The movie
grossed $611,899,420 worldwide and $370,782,930 in
the US alone, surpassing any motion picture starring
Gibson. In US box offices, it became the eighth, at the
time highest-grossing film in history and the highest-
grossing rated R film of all time. The film was
nominated for three Academy Awards and won the
People's Choice Award for Favourite Dramatic Motion
Picture.
THE PASSION OF CHRIST

17. Gibson received further critical acclaim for his directing of the 2006
action-adventure film Apocalypto. Gibson's fourth directorial effort is
set in Mesoamerica during the early 16th century against the
turbulent end times of a Maya civilization. The sparse dialogue is
spoken in the Yucatec Maya language by a cast of Native American
descent. Gibson himself has stated that the film is an attempt at
making a deliberate point about great civilizations and what causes
them to decline and disintegrate. Gibson said, "People think that
modern man is so enlightened, but we're susceptible to the same
forces – and we are also capable of the same heroism and
transcendence. "This theme is further explored by a quote from Will
Durant, which is superimposed at the very beginning of the film: "A
great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed
itself from within."
APOCALYPTO

18. I chose Mel Gibson as an inspiration because not only is he one of my favourite
actors but he also has many other talents such as directing and producing his own
production company, and as I also have directed many performances and created
my production company in media,’ Peak Productions’ I feel that I am getting slowly
closer to what I aspire to be which isn’t just an actor but being able to try new
things. Along with Mel Gibson’s stage work I also played the same character as Mel
which was Estragon in ‘Waiting for Godot’ and even though my performance where
unknown I feel that I’m slowly getting closer to what I aspire to be.
INSPIRATION