Mel
Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American
Australian actor, Academy Award-winning director, producer and
screenwriter. 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. In 2004
Gibson directed The Passion of the Christ which was based on the
last twelve hours of the life of Jesus Christ according to the
Four Evangelists and Roman Catholic Sacred Tradition. It was
rendered multilingually in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin. Gibson's
next historical epic, Apocalypto, was released to theaters on
December 8, 2006. The film is set in Mesoamerica, during the
fifteenth century. While Gibson financed the film himself, Disney
released it in specific markets. In December 2006, Gibson told
"The Sun" newspaper that he does not want to act in
another film, because he wants to just direct movies. In March
2007, Gibson told a screening audience that he was preparing
another script ... more
