Home/Register/Login Now Playing/News/My Movies/Games/Boards/Showtimes/Help/IMDbPro
Register/Login IMDb Home IMDb Home Now Playing News My Movies Fun & Games Message Boards US Movie Showtimes Help & Guide IMDbPro
Also available :-
Top
Movies
| Photo
Galleries
| Video/DVD | Browse
IMDb
| Independent
Film
 

Search IMDb.com

 
Search the Web
 
Mel Gibson
Filmographies
( ) categorized
( ) combined
( ) sorted by ratings
( ) sorted by votes
( ) awards & nominations
( ) titles for sale
( ) by genre
( ) by keyword
( ) power search
( ) credited with
Biographical
(o) biography
( ) other works
( ) publicity
( ) agent
( ) photo gallery
( ) news articles
External Links
( ) on tv this week
(X) official site
( ) miscellaneous
( ) photographs
(X) sound clip(s)
(X) video clip(s)
 

Not the Mel Gibson you're looking for?

Biography for
Mel Gibson (I)

 
PageFlicker
IMDb home PreviousMain DetailsNext Help
Page 11 of 19

Birth name
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson
Height
5' 10½" (1.79 m)
Mini biography

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 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 (1979) and in a movie called Tim (1979) costarring Piper Laurie. The small budgeted movie Mad Max (1979) made him known worldwide, while Tim (1979) garnered him an award for Best Actor from the Australian Film Institute (equivalent to the Oscar). Later he would go on to star in Gallipoli (1981), which would earn him a second award for Best Actor from the AFI. In 1980 he married Robyn Moore and as of today are still together and have seven children. In 1984, Mel made his American debut in Bounty, The (1984), which co-starred Anthony Hopkins. Then in 1987, Mel starred in what would become his signature series - Lethal Weapon (1987), in which he played Martin Riggs. In 1990, he took on the interesting starring role in Hamlet (1990/I), which garnered him some critical praise. He also made the more endearing Forever Young (1992), and the somewhat disturbing Man Without a Face, The (1993). 1995 brought his most famous role as Sir William Wallace in Braveheart (1995), for which he won two Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. From there, he made such box office hits as Patriot, The (2000), Ransom (1996), and Payback (1999). Today Mel remains an international superstar mogul, continuously topping the Hollywood power lists as well as the Most Beautiful and Sexiest lists. His $25 million paycheck for Patriot, The (2000) is the latest milestone for actor's salaries.


IMDb mini-biography by
TrendEkiD@aol.com
Spouse
Robyn Moore (7 June 1980 - present) 7 children

Trivia

Ranked #12 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]

Born at 4:45pm-EST

Chosen by People (USA) magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world. [1996]

Educated at University of New South Wales, Australia.

Attended drama school with Judy Davis. They played Romeo and Juliet together.

Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world. [1991]

Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world [1990]

Trained at NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts). As well as Judy Davis, other fellow students, during his time there, included Colin Friels and Dennis Olsen.

Awarded the AO (Officer of the Order of Australia), Australia's highest honor, in mid-1997.

Roommates with Geoffrey Rush in college.

He took up acting only because his sister submitted an application behind his back. The night before an audition, he got into a fight, and his face was badly beaten, an accident that won him the role.

Brother of actor, Donal Gibson.

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#37). [1995]

Son of Anne Gibson.

Chosen as People Magazine's first Sexiest Man Alive [1985]

Is a big fan of The Three Stooges.

First studied drama at the New Zealand Drama School, Toi Whakaari in Wellington, New Zealand. After getting accepted he completed the course and used this as a foot-in into NIDA in Australia in 1975.

He and his wife met through a dating service.

Has a horseshoe kidney (two kidneys fused into one)

Abstains from alcohol completely.

Owns a production company with branches in the USA, Australia and the UK.

Ranked #15 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List. Had ranked #17 in 2002.

His voice in Mad Max (1979) was dubbed for the film's US release.

The doctor who delivered him into the world was Charles Sweet, Grandfather of actor Jay Danger.

He was a part of the movment dubbed the "Australian New Wave" by the press. They were a group of filmmakers and performers who emerged from Down Under at about the same time in the early 1980's and found work in other parts of the world. Other members included actress Judy Davis and directors George Miller, Gillian Armstrong and Peter Weir.

He was the first Australian actor to be paid $1,000,000 for a film role.

Almost turned down the role of William Wallace in Braveheart (1995) because he thought he was too old for the role. He asked the producers if he could direct it instead. A compromise was made, he could direct the movie if he agreed to portray Wallace.

Shares birthday with J.R.R. Tolkien.

His father, Hutton Gibson, moved the family from upstate New York to Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1968 after winning as a contestant on "Jeopardy!" (1964).

For Passion of the Christ, The (2004), which he directed, wrote and produced, he spent 25 million dollars of his own money. Back in 1992, he started doing research for the movie that was not released until 2004.

Has 7 children: daughter, Hannah Gibson (born 1980); twin sons, Edward Gibson and Christian Gibson (born 1982); son, Willie Gibson (born 1985); daughter, Louis Gibson (born 1988); son, Milo Gibson (born 1990); son, Tommy Gibson (born 1999)

Son, Christian Gibson, is a freshman at the University of Colorado at Boulder. [Fall 2001]

Was considered for the role of James Bond in GoldenEye (1995).


Personal quotes

"That's the way you should do it. Take a garbage role for the money, like Lethal Weapon 4, and then do what you want to do. He's a cool fella." - Peter Stormare

"I like directing much better. It's more fun, that's all there is to it. It's essentially the same job, which is storytelling, but you have more control over the way you want to tell the story. It's a high. I love it."

'My fears: everything from being afraid that I'm going to run out of cream for my cornflakes right up to someone chopping my privates off.'

"If you're going to wear three hats, you'd better grow two more heads". [Regarding his involvement in Braveheart (1995) as actor, director and producer.]

"There is no salvation for those outside the Church...I believe it. Put it this way. My wife is a saint. She's a much better person than I am. Honestly. She's like, Episcopalian, Church of England. She prays, she believes in God, she knows Jesus, she believes in that stuff. And it's just not fair if she doesn't make it, she's better than I am. But that is a pronouncement from the chair. I go with it."

[About his religious beliefs] "I'm not a done deal. I'm a work in progress. I'm still extremely flawed."


Salary
Signs (2002) $25,000,000
We Were Soldiers (2002) $25,000,000
Patriot, The (2000) $25,000,000
Chicken Run (2000) £1,000,000
Conspiracy Theory (1997) $20,000,000
Ransom (1996) $20,000,000
Maverick (1994) $15,000,000
Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) $10,000,000
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) $1,200,000 (Australia)
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) $120,000 (Australia)
Mad Max (1979) $15,000 (Australia)
Summer City (1977) $400 (Australian)

Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:

The not-very-obscure object of desire for countless female film fans, this Australian heartthrob was actually born in the U.S., emigrating Down Under at the age of 12. His grandmother was an Australian opera singer who had moved to the States, and when Gibson's father, a railroad brakeman, was injured on the job, he used the settlement money to move Gibson and his 11 siblings back to the old country. Gibson studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, where as a student he made his cinema debut in Summer City (1976). Three years later he was cast as a young retarded man in Tim (1979), which earned him Australia's equivalent of the Oscar. He then won the lead in a grade-B sci-fi film called Mad Max and that film's improbable success (over $100 million at the box office and two sequels) launched Gibson on the road to stardom. Road Warrior (1981) satisfied his Mad Max fans, but Gibson scored mainstream successes in starring roles in two pictures directed by fellow Aussie Peter Weir. In Gallipoli (1981) he played a young soldier unaware of impending massacre, and in The Year of Living Dangerously (1983), he portrayed an Australian journalist and sometime love interest of Sigourney Weaver. He costarred with Anthony Hopkins in The Bounty (1984), taking the Fletcher Christian role that was previously played by Clark Gable and Marlon Brando.

Gibson has worked hard to shed the image, in which he was typed early in his career, as a good-looking hunk with meager acting talents. In addition to breadand-butter roles in such action pictures and thrillers as Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and Tequila Sunrise (1988), he has tackled more demanding roles, notably opposite Diane Keaton in Mrs. Soffel (1984) and playing the title role (surprisingly well) in Hamlet (1990). He's most popular in lighthearted fare, where he can superimpose his own boisterous humor on his characters: the Lethal Weapon trilogy (1987, 1989, 1992), Bird on a Wire and Air America (both 1990). The father of six children, he has shown real interest in upbeat, heartwarming movie fare, as evidenced by the romantic drama Forever Young (1992) and the film he chose for his directing debut, The Man Without a Face (1993), in which he also starred. He returned to his métier for the movie version of Maverick (1994), then tackled the hugely ambitious epic Braveheart (1995) and did himself proud as actor, director, and producer. In 1995 he also provided the voice of Captain John Smith for Disney's animated Pocahontas. His film company, Icon Productions, made the Beethoven biopic Immortal Beloved (1994).

Copyright © 1994 Leonard Maltin, used by arrangement with Signet, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc.


You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the button on the left will take you through a new improved step-by-step process.



Browse biographies section by name

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z