Award For Actor Who Put Mad Into 'mad Max'
The Age
Friday July 25, 1997
The actor and director Mel Gibson can add an honorary Order of Australia to the dual Academy Awards on his mantelpiece, after the Federal Government yesterday appointed him an Honorary Officer in the Order of Australia for his service to the local film industry.
The citation described Gibson as a "talented and energetic artist who had helped place Australia at the forefront of world cinema".
The man who put madness into Mad Max and lunacy into Lethal Weapon before bringing kilts into vogue in Braveheart topped the Business Review Weekly performers' list, with an estimated salary of $50.3 million in 1996.
Gibson won best director and best picture Academy Awards for Braveheart in 1996. Born in New York in 1956, he settled in Australia in 1968.
* The founder and former principal of St John's College, Braybrook, Brother Joseph Bouchard, was awarded an Honorary Medal of the Order of Australia for services to Catholic education.
© 1997 The Age