Mel Gibson is a popular actor, particularly during the 1980's and 1990's in both the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon series of films. He was born in American but spent much of his early life in Australia. Here he started to act in the theatre. Whilst still at drama college he was cast in Mad Max, which together with the two sequals made him an international star. Gallipoli was a more realistic film of young volunteers in World War 1 from Peter Weir. THis was the film that brought him to the attention of Hollywood. In The Year of Living Dangerously he is a foreign correspondent during a communist insurrection. He followed this with the star studded remake of The Bounty. His next major role was in Lethal Weapon which made him a major commercial success which continued with films like Tequila Sunrise and Bird On A Wire. His desicion to do Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet was a major change in his style of films and his gives a good and impassioned performance as Hamlet. Forever Young was a romantic fantasy. Braveheart was his passion piceture which he directed and developed into a big epic. He won the Best DIrector Oscar for this film. In Conspiracy Theory one of his theories comes true and so people want to kill him. THis rolw was more ambiguous about if he was good or not. Payback is a violent revenge thriller, with a few undertones of black humour. What Women Want is a comic take on the differences between men and women. Signs was an M Night Shyamalan horror film. Egde Of Darkness is another revenge conspiracy thriller that he is drawn into after his daughter is murdered. The Professor and the Madman is a strange film about the compilation of the English dictionay, one of whom is in a lunatic asylum.
