Although he was first introduced to international audiences as an all-new Aussie star, Mel Gibson was in fact born in Peekskill, New York, on January 3, 1956. He is the sixth of 11 children, and has five brothers and five sisters. The family relocated to Australia when he was 12 after his father, a railroad worker, won a large settlement for a job injury.
The move came, in part, because Gibson Sr. wanted to avoid having his sons drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. As Mel's paternal grandmother had been an Australian opera singer, the move down under was, in a way, a return to the old country.