Gibson earned his first million dollar salary for playing Max Rockatansky for the third time, in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985).

S.) American-born Australian actor who became an international star with a series of action-adventure films in the 1980s and later earned acclaim as a director and producer.

S., that became a critical and box-office sensation that established Miller and Gibson as the premier action team of the 1980s. Gibson gave a rousing performance as Wallace, but, although it was his first time behind the camera for a feature film, it was Gibson’s assuredness both in his direction of the action and character scenes that truly caught critics by surprise.

The same white male privilege and power that props up a bigot like Gibson also safeguards a system that holds back so many talented, diverse artists. He had equal success in the US, starring in everything from action films (the “Lethal Weapon” franchise) to romantic comedies (“What Women Want”).

Gibson's most recent theatrical performance, opposite Sissy Spacek, was the 1993 production of Love Letters by A. In fact, it was Gibson’s prowess behind the camera that was his ticket back into the Academy’s good graces with the acclaimed WWII drama “Hacksaw Ridge,” for which he earned another nomination for Best Director. Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson was born January 3, 1956 in Peekskill, New York, USA, as the sixth of eleven children of Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, and Anne Patricia (Reilly) Gibson (who died in December of 1990). In fact, Gibson himself surprised many critics with his solid performance and, perhaps most impressively, more than held his own alongside such great actors as Glenn Close, Alan Bates and Paul Scofield.