Mel Colm Cille Gerard Gibson
Mel Gibson won the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture for Braveheart 1995, a historical epic that also starred him as William Wallace. Earlier, he became an international star with the Mad Max 1979 and Lethal Weapon 1987 franchises. He studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Australia and later directed The Passion of the Christ 2004 and Hacksaw Ridge 2016.
Mel Gibson by the numbers — life, work, and family.
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Mel Gibson — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Mel Gibson’s path to acting began with a family move to Australia in 1968 after his father won on Jeopardy!. He was the sixth of eleven children, born in Peekskill, New York to Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, and Anne Patricia Reilly, an Irish immigrant. Growing up in New South Wales, he later studied at the University of New South Wales and trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, where he roomed with Geoffrey Rush.
Gibson’s breakout came with Mad Max 1979, a low-budget Australian film that made him a global sensation, and Tim 1979, for which he won an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor. He repeated the AFI win with Gallipoli 1981. In 1987, he launched the Lethal Weapon series as Detective Martin Riggs. His most famous role arrived in 1995: William Wallace in Braveheart, which he also directed, earning him Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. He turned down roles in Die Hard 1988, The Terminator 1984, and Gladiator 2000 due to scheduling or other concerns. In the 2000s, he directed the controversial The Passion of the Christ 2004, self-funding it with $25 million, and later Apocalypto 2006 and Hacksaw Ridge 2016, the latter earning Andrew Garfield an Oscar nomination.
Gibson married Robyn Moore in 1980, and they had seven children together before separating in 2006 and divorcing in 2011, with the settlement reported as the largest in Hollywood history at $850 million. He later had a daughter, Lucia, with Oksana Grigorieva in 2009, and a son, Lars, with girlfriend Rosalind Ross in 2017. Gibson has struggled with alcoholism, checking into rehab in August 2006, and was investigated for domestic violence after an incident with Grigorieva in 2010. He owns a private chapel on his estate and attends mass daily.
Mel Gibson’s dual success as a leading actor and Academy Award-winning director is clear in his work. Braveheart 1995 was ranked #62 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies. The Passion of the Christ 2004 grossed over $600 million worldwide despite being self-funded and in Aramaic and Latin. He mentored actors including the late Heath Ledger. He was named People magazine’s first Sexiest Man Alive and Forbes’s top Celebrity 100 earner in 2004. His storytelling often brings visceral, controversial elements to the screen.
Browse the complete filmography of Mel Gibson — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Mel Gibson — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Mel Gibson — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
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.
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.
On His Religious Beliefs: I’m Not a Done Deal. I’m a Work in Progress. I’m Still Extremely Flawed.
You Can’t Live up to What People Expect. Nobody Can. but I Guess That’s My Problem, Not Theirs.
I Wasn’t Exactly the Most Zealous Keeper of the Flame, You Know? I Was a Pretty Wild Boy Quite Frankly. Even Now When I’m Trying More Than I Was Before, I Still Fail Every Day at Some Level, but That’s Being Human.
I’d Like to Be Able to Wake up Early Every Morning, but I Don’t. I’d Like to Quit Smoking. I’d Like to Never Lose My Temper. the List Goes on and On. I’d Even Like to Get Dressed by Myself, and Not Have Other People Watching Me.
I Did a Lot of Crazy Things so I’m Surprised to Be Alive.
On Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research: I Found That the Cloning of Human Embryos Will Be Used in the Process and That, for Me, I Have an Ethical Problem with That. Why Do I, as a Taxpayer, Have to Fund Something I Believe Is Unethical?
On His Decision to Cut a Scene in Which Caiaphas Says His Blood Be on Us and on Our Children Soon Pontius Pilate Washes His Hands of Jesus: 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.
Vatican II Corrupted the Institution of the Church. Look at the Main Fruits: Dwindling Numbers and Pedophilia. Time, January 27, 2003.
I Might Go and Go Somewhere No One Can Find Me. You Know Where That Is? You Know Where the Place Is No One Can Find You? I Was Thinking of Pitching My Tent Right Next to the Weapons of Mass Destruction. Then No One Would Find Me.
Asked Whether His Opposition to Abortion and Support for Capital Punishment Makes Him Feel Isolated in Hollywood: Some Kind of a Dinosaur? No, You Know You Have to Have These Opinions About These Things. I’m Pretty Firm on Stuff Like That. I Don’t Feel Like I’m Howling in a Hurricane. I Just Try to Do My Bit the Way I Think It Should Be Done.
Obviously, Nobody Wants to Touch Something Filmed in Two Dead Languages. They Think I’m Crazy, and Maybe I Am. but Maybe I’m a Genius.
There’s Something to Do with the Federal Reserve That Lincoln Did, Kennedy Did and Reagan Tried. I Can’t Remember What It Was. My Dad Told Me About It. Everyone Who Did This Particular Thing That Would Have Fixed the Economy Got Undone. Anyway, I’ll End up Dead If I Keep Talking.
My Biggest Weakness Is That I’m Excessive. Fortunately for Everyone Concerned, I’m Not as Excessive as I Used to Be.
I Think the Lethal Weapon Movies Contain My Favorite Performances. It Sounds Really Crummy, I Know, but Although the Work Doesn’t Look Hard, It’s Difficult to Create Effortless on Screen.
To Be Certain, Neither I nor My Film Is Anti Semitic. the Passion Is a Movie Meant to Inspire, Not Offend. My Intention in Bringing It to the Screen Is to Create a Lasting Work of Art and Engender Serious Thought Among Audiences of Diverse Faith Backgrounds, or None, Who Have Varying Familiarity with This Story. If the Intense Scrutiny During My Twenty Five Years in Public Life Revealed I Had Ever Persecuted or Discriminated Against Anyone Based on Race or Creed, I Would Be All Too Willing to Make Amends. but There Is No Such Record. nor Do I Hate Anybody Certainly Not the Jews … They Are My Friends and Associates, Both in My Work and Social Life. Thankfully, Treasured Friendships Forged Over Decades Are Not Easily Shaken by Nasty Innuendo. Anti Semitism Is Not Only Contrary to My Personal Beliefs, It Is Also Contrary to the Core Message of My Movie … for Those Concerned About the Content of This Film, Know That It Conforms to the Narratives of Christ’s Passion and Death Found in the Four Gospels of the New Testament … This Is a Movie About Faith, Hope, Love and Forgiveness Something Sorely Needed in These Turbulent Times.
Hollywood Is a Factory. You Have to Realize That You Are Working in a Factory and You’re Part of the Mechanism. If You Break Down, You’ll Be Replaced.
The Precursors to a Civilization That’s Going Under Are the Same, Time and Time Again. What’s Human Sacrifice If Not Sending Guys off to Iraq for No Reason?
I’ll Always Continue to Work. I’ve Never Much Depended on Anyone but Myself, as Far as That Goes. And, Hey, I’m Not Under the Illusion That Everything’s Just Going to Be Hunky Dory Work Wise Forever. I’ve Never Been Under That Illusion. Things Could Go Away Tomorrow.
My Dad Taught Me My Faith. I Believe What He Taught Me. the Man Never Lied to Me in His Life. People Said, ‘Well, He’s Just an Old Kook.’ He’s Not an Old Kook. He’s Very Intelligent. He’s in Complete Possession of All His Mental Faculties. and If He Says Something He Has a Reason Why He Says It and He Can Back It Up. Mensa Wanted This Guy, Okay? He’s Very Intelligent.
I Felt Like Sending Michael Richards a Note. I Feel Really Badly for the Guy. He Was Obviously in a State of Stress. You Don’t Need to Be Inebriated to Be Bent Out of Shape. but My Heart Went Out to the Guy. They’ll Probably Torture Him for a While and Then Let Him Go. I Like Him.
I’ve Been Chased by Automobiles Doing Dangerous Things on the Freeway. People Have Tried to Spit on Me. It’s Made Me Totally Paranoid. One Day a Gay Group Confronted Me. They Had Signs, They Were Screaming and Frothing at the Mouth Pure Hatred. It Was Wild. After Making Apparently Homophobic Remarks in a 1992 Interview with a Spanish Magazine.
Everyone Always Presumes I’m a Republican. I’m Not. I Couldn’t Vote for Either One of Those Guys in the Last Election. I Looked at the Pair of Them and Was Like, ‘What Do You Want to Do Get Punched or Get Kicked?’ It Was a Terrible Choice to Have to Make. so I Found Somebody Else on the Ballot Who Was an Independent Who I Liked the Sound Of. I Can’t Even Remember His Name.
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 Shouldn’t Have Said It, but I Was Tickling a Bit of Vodka During That Interview, and the Quote Came Back to Bite Me on the Ass. on His Controversial 1992 Interview with a Spanish Magazine.
William Wallace Was Around 28 When He Died and I Was Already Ten Years Older Than That, Although at Least My Knees Weren’t Wrinkly!
When All’s Said and Done, I Did a Pretty Good Hatchet Job on My Marriage. I’m to Blame, If You’re Inclined to Judge.
Nobody Is Without Sin. You Have to Try to Make Amends If You Can. You Have to Shut up and Move on and Not Whine About It. and You Have to Deal with It Like a Man. You’ve Just Got to Accept Your Own Culpability.
I Feel Sorry for Tiger Woods. Why Are We Talking About This When We’re Sending 30,000 More Troops to Afghanistan? He’s Being Used as a Diversion, and It Just Drives Me Crazy.
I Have Aged. It’s Just a Natural Part of the Holy Human Condition. What Am I Going to Do? Get Surgery? That Just Looks Weird. Besides, That Must Hurt, so What’s the Point? I Think I’m a Lot Better Because Maturity Brings Things Out. I Just Wish I Had That Youthful Spring Again. but It’s a Trade Off, Right?
I Did Have Bodyguards for a Little While but It’s a Drag. If Your Number’s Up, Its Up. If I’m Lying in Bed and Somebody Comes into My Room, I’ll Either Wake up or I Won’t. and I’ll Either Hit ‘Em with My Big Stick That I’ve Got or My Gun That I Have Stowed Away… or They’ll Hit Me. Look, in This Day and Age, You’ve Got to Be Tooled Up.
Little-known facts about Mel Gibson — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Mel Gibson nearly declined playing William Wallace in Braveheart 1995, feeling he was too old. He proposed directing instead, and a compromise allowed him to both direct and star.
He served as a mentor to the late actor Heath Ledger.
His father, Hutton Gibson, moved the family from upstate New York to Sydney in 1968 after winning as a contestant on Jeopardy! 1964.
For The Passion of the Christ 2004, which he directed, wrote, and produced, he spent $25 million of his own money. He began research for the film in 1992.
In interviews promoting The Passion of the Christ 2004, Gibson admitted that depression had led him to contemplate suicide and that he made the film to heal himself.
He turned down the chance to voice a parody of himself in Family Guy episode North by North Quahog, later regretting the decision.
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.
Has a horseshoe kidney two kidneys fused into one.
Turned down the role of Kyle Reese in James Cameron’s The Terminator 1984.
Separated from wife Robyn in June 2006; she filed for divorce in April 2009, finalized in December 2011, reportedly with a payout of $850 million, the largest in Hollywood history.
In the movie Forever Young 1992, he needed to appear older in the final scenes. Because his eyes were bright blue, no amount of wrinkles aged him authentically, so he wore gray contacts.
Director Martin Scorsese sent him the script for The Departed 2006, offering the role of Ellerby. Gibson declined as he was starting production on Apocalypto 2006. Alec Baldwin later took the role.
Was considered for the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in Batman 1989 with Richard Donner directing, but he was busy with Lethal Weapon 2 1989.
Was considered for the role of Wolverine in X-Men 2000 but deemed too expensive.
The Road Warrior 1981 is his favorite of the Mad Max series.
One of six people along with Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Richard Attenborough, and Kevin Costner to win the Academy Award for Best Director while being mainly known as actors.
Has his own private chapel on his grounds where he attends mass daily.
On August 1, 2006, he checked into a recovery program for alcohol abuse. His wife separated from him that same month.
Was approached to play James Bond by Albert R. Broccoli while making The Year of Living Dangerously 1982. He was considered for The Living Daylights 1987 and GoldenEye 1995 but was turned down for not being British or was busy with Braveheart.
Turned down the role of John McClane in Die Hard 1988.
Like his character Riggs in the Lethal Weapon series, he is a big fan of The Three Stooges.
Braveheart 1995 is ranked #62 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time.
Works with Survivor Mitzvah Project, a charitable group providing emergency aid to Holocaust survivors in Eastern Europe.
He was the first Australian actor to be paid $1,000,000 for a film role.
Was offered the role of Eliot Ness in The Untouchables 1987 but had to decline because he was already working on Lethal Weapon 1987.
His voice in Mad Max 1979 was dubbed for the film’s US release.
Owns a production company, Icon International, with branches in the USA, Australia, and the UK.
His family line goes back several generations in Australia, with ancestors originally from Ireland, Scotland, and England.
Has nine children from three women: seven from his marriage to Robyn Gibson including Hannah, Edward, Christian, Willie, Louie, Milo, and Tommy, daughter Lucia born 2009 with Oksana Grigorieva, and son Lars born 2017 with Rosalind Ross.
Ranked number 1 on Forbes’s 2004 Celebrity 100 List, earning $210,000,000 from The Passion of the Christ profits, more than Oprah Winfrey, J.K. Rowling, and Steven Spielberg that year.
Friends with Jodie Foster and Robert Downey Jr.
Chosen as People Magazine’s first Sexiest Man Alive.
His mother was born in County Longford, Ireland; his father was born in Peekskill, New York. His paternal grandmother, Eva Mylott, was an Australian contralto opera singer.
According to fan magazines, his father moved the family to Australia to lessen his sons’ chances of serving in the Vietnam War.
His performance as Mad Max Rockatansky in the Mad Max trilogy is ranked #78 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
A chain smoker for most of his career; in 2004 his wife persuaded him to limit his addiction to three cigarettes a day, but it did not last.
Was expecting his ninth child with girlfriend Rosalind Ross as of September 2016.
He was the first choice to play Maximus in Gladiator 2000 but turned it down.
Voted the 48th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
Has struggled with alcoholism.
Roommates with Geoffrey Rush after college when they were in an acting company called Jane Street affiliated with NIDA.
Hired his eldest child and only daughter Hannah as a production assistant on his film The Patriot 2000.
In early December 2004, he flew to Fiji and bought the 2,160-hectare island of Mago for $15 million, finalized in March 2005.
Turned down the role of Harvey Dent/Two-Face in Batman Forever 1995 due to scheduling conflicts with Braveheart 1995.
Wanted to be an actor after seeing Maverick on television.
Directed one Oscar-nominated performance: Andrew Garfield in Hacksaw Ridge 2016.
He is the sixth of eleven children.
Sold his home in Connecticut in July 2010 to settle his divorce with ex-wife Robyn.
Voted the most powerful Christian in Hollywood in a poll by Beliefnet.com in October 2007.
Was investigated for domestic violence by Malibu/Lost Hills station detectives regarding an incident with ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva on January 6, 2010.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Mel Gibson.
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