414 Gibson, Mel The Eighties in America
bases pumping his fist back and forth and was
mobbed by his delighted teammates at home plate.
Inspired by Gibson’s blast, the Dodgers won the next
three games to sweep the World Series. The ninth-
inning home run in the first game was Gibson’s only
appearance in the 1988 World Series.
Impact Gibson’s ninth-inning home run in the first
game of the 1988 World Series has become one of
the most memorable homers in World Series history,
and the film of that home run has become one of
baseball’s iconic game films. Played over and over at
World Series time, the film reminds fans that any-
thing can happen in a game of baseball and that a
baseball game is never truly over until the last out of
the last inning has been recorded.
Further Reading
Shatzkin, Mike, ed.The Ballplayers. New York: Arbor
House, 1990.
Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns.Baseball: An Illus-
trated Histor y. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
James Tackach
See also Baseball; Sports.
Gibson, Mel
Identification American Australian actor
Born January 3, 1956; Peekskill, New York
Gibson began the 1980’s starring in several major Austra-
lian films, and over the course of the decade he transitioned
to being a major star of American action movies as well.
Mel Gibson achieved celebrity status with the success
of the Australian filmMad Maxin 1979. As the film’s
title character, a revenge-bent police officer in a
postapocalyptic near future, Gibson brutally pun-
ished the men who killed his family. Gibson would re-
visit the role of Max Rockatansky in 1981’sMad Max 2:
The Road Warrior, capitalizing on the early 1980’s pop-
ularity of science fiction and anxiety over the Cold
War. Gibson became one of America’s favorite action
stars in this role. The role opened the door for his en-
try into the action circuit, but he repeatedly turned
down offers of other action-hero parts.
Gibson, trained as a professional stage actor be-
fore his rise to fame, instead played roles in more se-
rious movies likeGallipoli(1981),The Year of Living
Dangerously(1982),The Bounty(1984), andThe River
(1984). Unfortunately for Gibson’s intents, how-
ever, action was what the 1980’s public craved from
him. In 1985, he returned to the role of Mad Max in
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdomealongside Tina Turner.
This time, Gibson helped lost children find a home
in the postapocalyptic world while escaping a fight
in the Thunderdome, a pop culture reference that
would live on for the rest of the 1980’s. Notably, it
was his appearance in this film that sent him into the
spotlight again and allowed him to capturePeople
magazine’s first “Sexiest Man Alive” title in 1985.
Gibson returned to the action genre two years
later inLethal Weapon(1987). Starring in this buddy
movie opposite Danny Glover, Gibson played the
suicidal Sergeant Martin Riggs of the Los Angeles
Police Department. Gibson gave a stunning perfor-
mance as Riggs, one that transcended the conven-
tions of the genre, raising it to the level of drama.
Gibson’s acting inLethal Weaponproved to America
that he was not just a man of action but also one of
the superior actors of the decade. Though Gibson
picked his parts carefully for the rest of the decade,
he did return to the character of Riggs inLethal
Weapon 2in 1989. Gibson married in 1980 but kept
his personal life guarded from the public as best he
could. He could not help getting noticed for his
drinking, however; in 1984, he was charged with
drunk driving in Canada and fined.
Impact Mel Gibson’s greatest impact on the 1980’s
was his work as a film actor, especially in the action
genre. Gibson portrayed many gritty characters dur-
ing the 1980’s and is most remembered for play-
ing characters who endured extreme pain in both
theMad Maxseries and theLethal Weaponseries.
Though Gibson would try to shy away from the ac-
tion movies, his largest successes of the 1980’s were
in that genre.
Further Reading
Clarkson, Wensley.Mel Gibson: Man on a Mission.
London: John Blake, 2006.
Perry, Roland.Lethal Hero: The Mel Gibson Biography.
London: Oliver Books, 1993.
Daniel R. VogelSee also Action films; Film in the United States.