Mel Gibson as Frank Sinatra

This must be the least flattering photograph ever taken of Mel Gibson. It accompanied a magazine article that came out at the time Braveheart was newly released, so may be described as a publicity shot, technically speaking. No wonder that Mel has somewhat of an obsession with his looks, as demonstrated by his making the films "Man Without a Face", and "Forever Young".

One of our fans sent us an email --- Roslyn Manner disagrees with me, and writes her comments on this photo as follows:

This the photo of a man "in character"; not a picture of what Mel Gibson "really looks like". Can't you see that he is wearing contacts so that his eyes appear to be brown. Greytones are used so that he will look more "ordinary"; his posture is very unnatural to make him appear slouchy, less lean and muscular ... less a "hunk" yet more precisely achieving the image he and the camera are setting out to create.

This is not a picture of Mel as he looks without makeup. This is a character photo, with lighting, black and white film, body language, and particular character ... he is working as hard as he can *not* to look like himself in order to create a character. Thank you, though, for this great picture. I love it!

Send e-mail telling us what you think about this unusual portrait of Mel, (or any of the others on our website) to The Mel Gibson Comment Center