Mel Gibson Sketch of the Day, 07JUN17 (pencil on 9x12 smooth bristol paper) (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. He was born in Peekskill, New York, and moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia, when he was 12 years old. Gibson is best known as an action hero, for roles such as Martin Riggs in the Lethal Weapon buddy cop film series, and Max Rockatansky in the first three films in the Mad Max post-apocalyptic action series. He studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art. During the 1980s, he founded Icon Entertainment, a production company which independent film director Atom Egoyan has called, "an alternative to the studio system". Director Peter Weir cast him as one of the leads in the critically acclaimed World War I drama Gallipoli (1981), which earned Gibson a Best Actor Award from the Australian Film Institute. The film also helped to earn Gibson the reputation of a serious, versatile actor. Gibson produced, directed, and starred in the epic historical drama film Braveheart (1995), for which he won the Golden Globe Award and Academy Award for Best Director, along with the Academy Award for Best Picture. He later directed and produced the financially successful and controversial, biblical drama film The Passion of the Christ (2004). He received further critical notice for his directorial work of the action-adventure film Apocalypto (2006), which is set in Mesoamerica during the early 16th century. After a 10-year hiatus from directing, Gibson returned with the critically praised and financially successful Hacksaw Ridge (2016), which won the Academy Awards for Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing and earned Gibson his second nomination for Best Director.