He is the sixth child of novelist Hutton Gibson and his wife, Anne Patricia, who died in 1990 at the age of 76. When Mel was 12 years old, the family moved to his grandmother’s homeland of Australia due to a variety of economic issues.
Gibson continued to perform as a theatrical actor during this time, participating in a number of productions with the Adelaide-based State Theatre Company. He appeared in a number of well-known plays, including Waiting for Godot and Death of a Salesman.
In 1980, Gibson married Robin Moore, with whom he had seven children until divorcing in 2011. His divorce settlement with his ex-wife was in the millions of dollars.