Mel Gibson

Gibson was born in the United States but moved to Australia as a child, training at Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Art alongside several future prominent Australian actors before his first film roles in the late 1970s.

The young Australian unknown whose haunted, near-silent Max Rockatansky became the template for every post-apocalyptic drifter since was cast in the original Mad Max partly by accident, having shown up to support a friend's audition and catching the casting director's eye instead, reportedly after arriving with a visibly bruised face from a bar fight the night before.

The role's international success launched his Hollywood career almost overnight, and he returned for two further Mad Max sequels across the following decade, becoming one of the most bankable action stars in the world through the 1980s and 90s on the strength of the character.