Mel Gibson has only ever been an actor.
Mel Colmcille Gerard Gibson ( born January 3 , 1956 ) is an American actor and filmmaker . During the 1980s , he founded Icon Entertainment , a production company which independent film director Atom Egoyan has called , `` an alternative to the studio system '' . 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 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 .