Mel Gibson is a brilliant Hollywood actor,
screenwriter, director, and producer. The blue-eyed genius heartbreaker won two Oscars and
the Golden Globe Award as Best Director. He is the father of many children, a philanthropist,
and a millionaire. But at the same time, mister Gibson is known for his wild debauchery
and many scandals. He was also a favorite actor of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
It’s time to unravel all the secrets of the legendary actor in our video made due to
numerous requests of our subscribers.
How Mel Gibson lives and what happened to him.
Mel Columcille Gerard GIbson was born on January 3, 1956 in suburban New York. He was the sixth
child in his Irish catholic family. The boy was named after St. Mel and St. Columcille, who is
venerated as one of the 12 disciples in Ireland. His parents, Patricia and Hatton Gibson, were
ordinary, deeply religious people. They saw the meaning of life in their children, thus the
family turned out to be quite large. They had 11 children in total. It seems that the great future
of Mel was genetically determined, because his paternal grandmother was an Australian opera star
and his grandfather was a millionaire. He owned a successful tobacco business in the American South.
The second ingredient in the formula of success was his parent's boundless love and care. They
did everything they could to support the children. However, the family couldn't be called well-off.
The father was a conductor on the New York Central Railroad, where he sustained occupational injury.
Having a high IQ and iron will, Hutton sued his former employer and got a substantial compensation
of $145,000. Moreover, his sharp mind allowed him to win $21,000 in an international game show, and
this money was very useful when the USA was about to enter a large-scale war conflict in Vietnam.
The head of the family didn't wanna risk the lives of their children, who would be eligible
to be drafted for service to fight in a war, and he decided to move his family to Australia.
Mel successfully graduated high school, and got a parallel religious education dreaming
to become a journalist. But his sister helped him a lot to choose his future vocation. She knew
that her brother was very artistic and liked to prank people. So she applied to Sidney National
Institute of Dramatic Art on his behalf. Gibson himself was not very eager to go there. The day
before the audition, he got very drunk and had a fight, and because of that he didn't look
very well. Fortunately, the commission liked this rough look, and he started his studies,
living with his friends in Sidney. Among these friends was future Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush.
While still a student, Mel appeared in his first movie, Summer City. This way he earned only
$400. Right after graduation, he started to receive offers for roles in movies, as well as an
invitation to join the national theater company. His first steps in this field brought him success:
almost simultaneously two movies hit the theaters, critically acclaimed movie Tim, and a cult
dystopian movie Mad Max directed by George Miller. The grim road movie brought fame to the aspiring
actor, and he earned 15,000 Australian dollars for that role, and eventually, Mad Max turned
out to be the most successful Australian movie, grossing over $100 million worldwide. At first,
the young actor didn't expect to get the lead role, because he showed up to the audition after
another fight. His face was swollen because of the bruises and abrasions, that's why he was
advised to come back a few weeks later to try to get a role as one of the bandits. After getting
himself together, Mel came back to the audition, and they offered him to try out the role of Max.
No one realized that this handsome young man was there before, hungover and beaten.
Fate gave Mel one gift after another, and this time he's got lucky in his personal
life. He met a charming dentist's assistant Robyn Moore. The couple met in Adelaide. The
actor came there touring with the theater, but there's also an alternative version, according
to which they met with the help of a dating agency. Perhaps, he had to use the services of the
professional matchmakers because as a young man, Gibson suffered from an inferiority complex,
he had a lot of fleeting relationships, he fought a lot, he drank a lot, and he got
in all kinds of trouble. After another fight, Mel was on the verge of death, and that was the
reason for him to turn his life around. In 1980, Mel and Robyn got married. The marriage was very
solid, it lasted for almost 30 years. They had seven children, five sons and two daughters.
Getting a reliable refuge in his wife, Gibson proceeded to conquer the screens. In 1981, he
starred in Miller's Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. The movie was received well by the audience and
praised by the critics, it was mentioned as one of the best movies of that year. Mel earned
$120,000 for the shooting. At the same time, he appeared in several successful movies, a
war drama Gallipoli about the hardships of the First World War, for which Gibson
earned 35,000 Australian dollars, and Attack Force Z, an action film about the
Second World War, which brought actor 1000 Australian dollars, and a romantic drama
film called The Year of Living Dangerously, in which he starred with Sigourney Weaver.
In the next couple of years, Gibson rocked Hollywood like a hurricane. He starred in
one top-notch film after another. In 1984, an adventure drama The Bounty came out, then the
actor starred in the drama film called The River, which got nominated for several Oscars, and a
drama film called Mrs. Soffel. The popularity of the actor brought him a one million contract
with a Japanese brewery called Asashi. According to the contract, the actor was obligated to
regularly appear in public with a beer can. Gibson was thoroughly fulfilling the obligation,
drinking around 8 cans of beer a day in a row, and when advised to replace beer with
tea or water, he refused. Probably, that contract backfired at Gibson, because during
this time he lost his driver's license for 3 months and got a $400 fine for drunk driving.
In 1985, the third Mad Max movie was released. This was the last time Gibson played
that role. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome was spectacular and action-packed, and Mel got
1.2 million Australian dollars for the role. He finally established his presence on the
Hollywood Olympus by playing the lead role in the cult classic action movie Lethal Weapon in 1987.
The movie brought its creators a bunch of awards including an Academy Award nomination for Best
Sound Mixing. Martin Riggs, masterfully created by Mel, is one of the best cinema characters
according to Empire magazine. They filmed an alternative beginning, depicting the main
character as a less likable person, as well as the ending. They were included in the DVD release.
The success of the first film prompted the producers to make a sequel, and between the
two parts of the franchise, Gibson starred in a crime film Tequila Sunrise. After the end of
the filming of Lethal Weapon 2 in 1989, it became clear that it's not commercially reasonable to
kill this character and the original script was rewritten to allow another sequel to be made.
There are 4 movies in the franchise in total. Mel had to refuse the role of Batman to be able
to star in the sequel. However, the magnificent performance in the first film gave Gibson the
opportunity to fulfill the dream of any actor, to play Hamlet in the film adaptation of
Shakespeare's tragedy. The scene of Riggs's suicide attempt left director Franco Zeffirelli
speechless, and he wanted only Mel to play the lead role. None of the major film companies
wanted to fund the adaptation, so Gibson had to create his own company to begin the filming.
This is how Icon Production was created. It produced more than 20 movies. As a logo Mel Gibson
used a fragment of the Virgin of Vladimir icon.
This made Gibson very busy in the 90s. He
starred in Bird on a Wire, Forever Young, and the action movie Air America. He got
paid 7 million dollars for the latter.
In 1992, the fans saw the next movie about
Martin Riggs. The third Lethal Weapon was a massive box office success and made Gibson richer
by $10 million. Then the American Western comedy Maverick thundered at the box offices, and Mel
received even more money for it, $15 million. Besides, the ambitious Australian man tried his
hand at directing. He filmed his first movie and played the lead role in it. The Man Without a
Face, despite the hopes, was not successful, which can't be said about Gibson's next movie. The epic
historical war drama about Scotland's struggle for freedom Braveheart blew up the screen. The proof
of the appreciation were ten Oscar nominations, the movie won five of them, including one to Mel
Gibson himself for Best Director. He also won a Golden Globe for Best Director. The story of the
film creation is full of fun facts. For example, Mel's character is only 20 years old according
to the script, and the actor himself was 38 at the time of the filming. Initially, the
movie was supposed to be much more gruesome, but they cut out controversial scenes from
the film to lower the age rating. The animal rights activists had some issues with the
movie, because they didn't believe that no horse was harmed during the filming. Gibson
managed to get out of the scandal, he proved that some horses were mechanical. In 2000, in
a special auction, the sword that was used by Gibson during the filming was sold for $170,000.
In 1995 Mel tried his hand at animation. He took part in voice acting in two projects: Casper and
Pocahontas. Right after that Gibson starred in two thriller movies, for which he got $20 million:
Ransom and Conspiracy Theory. In 1998, Lethal Weapon 4 was released. Mel broke his personal
record again and got $25 million for the role. Moreover, he signed a profitable advertising
contract with a Japanese company Subaru and appears in the commercial driving a right-hand
drive Legacy sedan through Stockholm and New York. By the way, Mel himself chose another Japanese
car, he's driving a modest sedan Toyota Cressida.
At the turn of the century, the fans
saw Mel in another action movie called Payback and in The Million Dollar Hotel.
He also voiced a character in Chicken Run. The historical drama The Patriot was praised by
the audience, for which Gibson got $25 million. It's peculiar that Mel asked to make several
changes to the script: they added another child to the six children the character had, because
at that moment Mel himself had seven children.
The movie What Women Want holds a special place
in Mel's career. A hoax and prank enthusiast, he brilliantly played the role of a charming
ladies' man who gained the ability to hear women's thoughts after being electrocuted. The
comedy film was a smashing hit, getting over $374 million in the worldwide box office. It was ranked
4th among the most successful movies of 2000.
At the same time, Mel got into a huge-scale
pharmaceutical war waged by the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
It was trying to restrict the consumption of vitamins by the Americans. As a protest,
Gibson appeared in a video in which his home is raided by a SWAT team. The actor, wearing a
bathrobe and holding a Vitamin C container says to the SWAT team: "It's just vitamins".
Since the early 00s, Gibson has not been that active as an actor. He appeared in
such films as Signs and We Were Soldiers, which brought him $50 million in total, a
musical crime comedy The Singing Detective, and the TV series Complete Savages. Mel spent more
and more energy and resources on his own projects, mostly as a director. His 2004 epic biblical drama
film The Passion of the Christ was a really huge event. The movie shocked the public, depicting
the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus Christ. The dialogues in this movie were written in
reconstructed Aramaic, ancient Hebrew, and Latin. Gibson, after the release of the movie, proclaimed
that the Holy Spirit was the real creator of the film, and he was just a vehicle. He even donated
$100 million to the Catholic church. The filming process was very difficult, the lead actor was
constantly injured, including a lightning strike. To make it more authentic, they decided to avoid
using CGI, the job was done exclusively by makeup artists who spent 10 hours on it. Moreover, the
actor who played Jesus, received real lashes and carried a real wooden cross weighing 154 pounds.
Thanks to this selfless and rigorous approach, the movie turned out to be grand. The whole
society was shocked including Pope John Paul II, who praised the movie, and Gibson's daughter,
Hannah, was so impressed that she even expressed a desire to take the veil and become a nun.
The phenomenal box office receipts of the movie was no surprise, it earned $609 million
worldwide. Because of that it is still in the top ten of the highest-grossing R-rated movies.
After the filming, Mel decided to buy the lush green Mago island, in Fiji archipelago
measuring 8 square miles, for 15 million dollars. He said he plans on preserving the
island's original condition for recreation, and he remains true to his words. The satellite
images show only dirt airstrip, Mel Gibson's mansion in the northern part of the island, and
houses of locals, who are paid by the actor. The next large-scale project of the Icon
company was the mystical movie Apocalypto, based on the historical myths and legends of the
Maya tribe. Gibson was the producer, the director, and the screenwriter of the movie. Same as in the
previous movie, Mel tried to make it as authentic as possible and didn't trust CGI to do the job.
It was filmed mostly in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and they reconstructed step-pyramids
very close to the original. In the movie, Mayans are depicted as very cruel people,
which was criticized by many historians, and representatives of one of the ethnic
communities filed a report to the Human Rights Commission of the Yucatan state. At the same time,
there was a huge scandal, when Mel was arrested for drunk driving again. This time, the movie star
acted really inappropriately, shouting Antisemitic slogans and racial slurs. This stunt almost ruined
Gibson's reputation, but he got away with it, he publicly apologized speaking about lapses
in judgment he's having from time to time. After this incident, Gibson retreated into the
shadows for 10 years and didn't film any movies.
Craving for solitude, in 2007, Mel bought a
mansion with a plot of land of 400 acres on the Costa Rica coast. He has been thinking
about buying a piece of this picturesque land when he was searching for location for the
Apocalypto shooting. He bought it for $26 million. This ranch consists of a villa, surrounded by
tropical forest, and a cute backyard. The home features several classic colonial-style bedrooms,
wood-dominated dining rooms and an on-site pool. Later Mel tried to sell the house for $35 million.
After all, Mr. Gibson is not just a great actor, but a good businessman as well, he knows how to
sell. In 2007, he sold another mansion in the Tudor style in Connecticut for $40 million, which
he bought in 1994 for $9 million. This 15-bedroom castle-like mansion is surrounded by a stunningly
beautiful garden, and the interiors of the living room with fireplace, library, and dining room are
strikingly rich and charmingly old-fashioned.
This break from the film industry and property
purchase can be explained by the problems in his personal life. In the spring of 2009,
there were rumors that Mel's solid family split up. Allegedly, the spouses had not
been living together for 3 years. Soon, Gibson showed up to the premiere of X-Men Origins:
Wolverine with a Russian pianist and singer Oksana Grigorieva. She met Gibson during the filming of
one of the movies, and pretty soon, the smitten actor became the producer of her album. There is
a theory that the meeting was not an accident, but was organized by a known in certain
circles matchmaker Peter Listerman, however, this information is not confirmed at all. After
the joint appearance and the news about Oksana being 4 months pregnant, Robyn filed for divorce,
and got a half of the net worth of the adulterer, $850 million. Besides that, Mel has to
pay half of his income to his ex-wife, and later she got two Malibu mansions worth
a total of $22,5 million. Actually, the break up fee of the Gibsons is considered to be one
of the largest in the history of Hollywood.
In October 2009, Mel and Oksana had a daughter,
who became the 8th child of the actor. The new family with newborn Lucy Anne, lived in a $11,5
million mansion situated in Malibu. Mel bought the house from his friend David Duchovny.
But the family life didn't work out and after 18 months the couple split up, and a few
months later Grigorieva filed a police report, stating that she was physically abused by Gibson.
They have opened a criminal case against Mel, and he received 3 years suspended sentence, a
$400 fine, and a restraining order prohibiting him from seeing their mutual daughter. Also, the
court ordered him to pay his common-law spouse a $750,000 compensation, and pay $40,000 each month
until the child reaches the age of 18. Also, Oksana got a mansion in Sherman Oaks, which
Gibson bought in 2009 for $2,4 million. The court ordered Mel to pay maintenance costs as
well. But the woman wanted more, so she posted on social media a recorded phone call between
her and Mel, during which he used racial slurs. This almost cost the actor his career and
reputation. Many people turned against him, but not Jodie Foster, Robert Downey Jr., Robert
Rodriguez, and Sylvester Stallone. They helped out the actor. Thanks to Rodriguez and Stallone, he
managed to appear in such movies as Machete Kills, where he played a villain for the
first time, and The Expendables 3.
As a result of the loud scandal, the filming
of the action movie Get the Gringo was delayed, and the premiere of the eccentric drama
The Beaver was canceled. It was planned to premiere in December 2010, considering the
Oscar nominations, but it was released only in May 2011. The premiere was a flop, the movie
failed at the box office. To top it all off, in 2010, the actor got into a car accident, he
crashed his Maserati car against a rock cliff on one of the Malibu roads. Fortunately, Gibson was
not harmed, which can't be said about the car, it had to be towed, it was completely totaled.
After this point, the actor decided to drive a convenient electric Smart car. He's
been driving it for many years already.
Mel tried to forget about the previous
relationship, and in 2012 it was reported that he's dating athlete Ashley Cusato, but it
didn't last very long. The next period of Mel's life can be considered a reset. He was completely
inactive both in professional and personal life. Only in 2016 Gibson renewed his activity,
he appeared in the action film Blood Father, and then directed Hacksaw Ridge, which brought
him an Oscar nomination as Best Actor, also it was reported that his new girlfriend, Rosalind
Ross, is pregnant with the actor's 9th child. On January 20, 2017, the couple had a baby, they
named him Lars Gerard. Thus, Mel has the second place in the top of actors with the largest
number of kids. Only Charlie Chaplin had more children than Mel, he had 11. But something
tells us that Gibson may beat this record. In the last couple of years, Gibson appeared as an
actor in such movies as Dragged Across Concrete, Boss Level, Force of Nature,
Dangerous, and Daddy's Home 2. The most peculiar film he starred in recently is
probably The Professor and The Madman, 2018. This movie was in production for 17 years. The filming
process was full of scandals and lawsuits. So, the production company Voltage Pictures
banned the crew from filming in Oxford, England. The reason given was budget
overruns and lack of time, and as a result, the filming was moved to Ireland. Enraged,
Gibson couldn't let the company cripple his film this way, and he tried to ban the
release of the film through the court, but he failed. In revenge, he decided not
to participate in the advertising campaign. In 2020, there was a premiere of a comedy action
film Fatman, with Mel Gibson in the lead role. In 2021, Gibson appeared in the action films Agent
Game, Dangerous and Last Looks, and the following year audiences could see the actor in Father
Stu, On the Line, Hot Seat, Panama, and Bandit. After all the lawsuits and alimony, Mel
Gibson's net worth is now $425 million. Despite the fact that according
to some open source estimates, Mel received a record sum of $450 million
for The Passion of The Christ and invested only $30 million of his personal money.
According to the most recent accounts, Mel is not sitting idle: Gibson is gonna be
the director of Lethal Weapon 5. Besides, he will play the lead role in The Continental
miniseries which is about to be released. The most intriguing is the rumor that the
actor is working on the sequel of his epic film about the life and death of Jesus
Christ called The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection, where Gibson will act as
director, screenwriter and producer. We tried our best to tell you all
about the life of this brilliant actor, talented director, and unique person, Mel Gibson.
Do you think he'll manage to surprise the world with a new masterpiece as he did with
Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ?
