Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American-born actor, director, and producer raised primarily in Australia. After establishing himself as a household name with the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon series, Gibson went on to direct and star in the Academy Award-winning Braveheart. Gibson's direction of Braveheart made him the sixth actor-turned-filmmaker to receive an Oscar for Best Director. In 2004, he directed and produced The Passion of the Christ, a blockbuster movie that portrayed the last hours of the life of Jesus. Gibson is an honorary Officer of the Order of Australia and was ranked the world's most powerful celebrity in the annual list by Forbes magazine in 2004.Gibson is a native-born United States citizen, being born in Peekskill, New York, the sixth of eleven children. He is the son of Hutton Gibson and Anne Reilly Gibson, who was born in Columcille Parish, County Longford, Ireland. His paternal grandmother was the Australian opera singer, Eva Mylott. One of Mel's younger brothers, Donal, is also an actor. Gibson's first name comes from a 5th century Irish saint, Mel, founder of the diocese of Ardagh containing most of his mother's native county, while his second name, Columcille is also linked to an Irish saint. Columcille is the name of the parish in County Longford where Anne Reilly was born and raised.
Hutton Gibson relocated his family to Sydney, Australia in 1968, after winning a work related injury lawsuit against New York Central. After a seven day trial on February 14, 1968, the jury awarded him $145,000.The family moved when Gibson was twelve. This move was in protest of the Vietnam War, for which Gibson's elder brothers risked being drafted. It is also because Gibson's father, a devout Traditionalist Catholic, believed that the changes to American society which took place during the 1960s were immoral.
On June 7, 1980, Gibson married Robyn Moore, a nurse whom he met through a dating service, in a Catholic Church in Forestville, New South Wales. He has referred to his wife as "my Rock of Gibraltar, only much prettier." They have seven children, one daughter and six sons: Hannah (born 1980), twins Edward and Christian (born 1982), Willie (born 1985), Louis (born 1988), Milo (born 1990), and Tommy (born 1999).
Gibson is Roman Catholic and his wife is Anglican. He holds to the Catholic doctrine of "Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus", and when asked how this doctrine would affect his wife, he said:
"There is no salvation for those outside the Church; I believe it. My wife is a saint. She's a much better person than I am. Honestly. ... 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.”
Hannah Gibson, Gibson's eldest child and only daughter, married the musician Kenny Wayne Shepherd on September 16, 2006. She had previously considered becoming a Catholic nun or religious sister.
Gibson has multiple homes in Malibu, CA, an estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, a private island near Fiji and a ranch in Australia.[28][29] In December 2004, Gibson purchased Mago Island from Tokyu Corporation of Japan for $15 million.Descendants of the original native inhabitants of Mago (who were displaced in the 1860s) have protested the purchase. He also has a house in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. In July 2007, he sold his 76 acre estate in Connecticut for $40 million to an unnamed buyer.
Gibson is an admirer of the Baroque artist Caravaggio. Much of the cinematography of The Passion of the Christ was designed to evoke the painter's style.
Gibson's height is disputed. Varied sources place him from 5'6" (170 cm) to 5'11" (180 cm)