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Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American-born Australian-reared movie actor, director, and producer best known for either acting in or directing the Mad Max series, the Lethal Weapon series, Braveheart, and The Passion of the Christ.
Gibson was born in Peekskill, New York as one of eleven children, but raised in Australia from the age of twelve. He maintained his U.S. citizenship.
Following a victory on the Jeopardy! game show, Gibson's father Hutton moved his family to Australia in 1968 in protest of the Vietnam War and because he believed that changes in American society were immoral. Some people have attacked Hutton Gibson for religious views that he says are based on traditional Catholicism, and on his political opinions. A Roman Catholic, Gibson has donated money to finance the construction of a traditional Catholic chapel in Malibu, California called Holy Family.
Married to Robyn for 24 years, with whom he has six sons and one daughter.
Gibson was born with a rare physical anomaly called Horseshoe kidney. His two kidneys are fused at the base into a U shape. This fusion anomaly occurs in about one of every 400 people.
After graduating from NIDA in 1977, Gibson's acting career began in Australia with appearances in the television series The Sullivans.
He made his Australian film debut as the leather-clad post-apocalyptic survivor in George Miller's Mad Max, which later became a cult hit and launched a series of films. His international profile increased through Peter Weir's anti-war First World War film Gallipoli. In 1984 he made his US movie debut, starring as Fletcher Christian in The Bounty. Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins played opposite Gibson as Captain Bligh.
Gibson moved to more mainstream filmmaking with the popular Lethal Weapon series, where he starred as a maverick and violent cop, Martin Riggs, in a buddy relationship with his older and more conservative partner played by Danny Glover. Gibson surprisingly moved to the classical genre, playing the melancholy Danish prince in Franco Zeffirelli's film of Shakespeare's Hamlet (1990). Gibson has been equally successful as a comedy actor, in films such as Maverick (1994) and What Women Want (2000).
In 1996, Gibson received two Academy Awards (Best Director and Best Picture) for the film Braveheart (1995), based on the life of Sir William Wallace, a thirteenth century Scottish warlord who fought the English.
Mel Gibson recently completed The Passion of the Christ, a film in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin, which recounts what Gibson describes as the last twelve hours of the life of Jesus Christ. The movie has received praise from many Christians and a number of politically conservative Jews (e.g. Michael Medved, David Horowitz, Steven Waldman).
The movie has been criticised by some liberal Christian and Jewish scholars, some of whom have claimed it may promote anti-Semitism, as it relies on passion-play images that have traditionally incited anti-Semitic incidents. The movie has been criticised by many Christian scholars for taking liberties with the New Testament storylines; a significant number of scenes and details in the movie are original ideas from an 19th century Catholic nun, Anne Catherine Emmerich, in her book "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ."
Gibson was asked if his movie would be offensive to Jews today; his response was "It's not meant to. I think it's meant to just tell the truth. I want to be as truthful as possible. But when you look at the reasons Christ came, he was crucified—he died for all mankind and he suffered for all mankind. So that, really, anyone who transgresses has to look at their own part or look at their own culpability." He also stated in an interview in The New Yorker, that he trimmed a scene from The Passion of the Christ involving the Jewish high priest Caiaphas because if he did not, "they'd be coming after me at my house, they'd come to kill me."
For a further discussion, see a separate article on The Passion of Christ.
Gibson's political viewpoints, while lauded by middle America, have been described by some liberal groups variously as 'conservative' and 'far right'. Some gay rights groups have accused him of homophobia for his alleged conservative Catholic views of homosexuality, and for allegedly depicting homosexuals as villains (The Man without a Face, Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ). However, others contend that even if he does hold these views they would simply be common to adherents of his faith.
His so-called conservative political views and support of Traditional Catholic beliefs have led to charges of anti-semitism by Jewish leaders, charges that increased following his making of the Gospel-based movie The Passion of the Christ. One scene in the film, that some Jews did not like, after seeing a stolen version of the film before its release, was the one where the Jewish crowd expressed support for the crucifixion of Christ by shouting His blood be on us and on our children! (Matthew 27:25), a verse that has been historically misused to justify hatred towards Jews. Jewish leaders also did not like the various scenes which they believe portray Jews as bloodthirsty people. In response to criticism, Gibson removed the subtitle for this line, but left the line itself in the movie.
However, not everyone agrees that the film is incontrovertibly anti-semitic. The film reviewer Michael Medved, who is Jewish, after viewing a rough cut commented that, "the film seemed to me so obviously free of anti-Semitic intent." Even many liberals have come out in support for Gibson, claiming that traditional Catholicism is not in itself anti-Semitic, and Gibson has no record of intolerance towards Jews or other ethnic groups. Evangelical Christian pastors who have seen the film have applauded Gibson's film as being faithful to the text.
For more information, see The Passion of the Christ.
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