(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sun 11 January 2026 15:45, UK
Nepotism has been running rampant in Hollywood since the dawn of the moving image, but it can also be a double-edged sword if your relative becomes a pariah. Few stars have fallen from grace quite like Mel Gibson, and one of the victims of his self-destructive habits was his own brother.
To be honest, it’s surprising that more of the actor and filmmaker’s family haven’t followed him into the movie business, since there are so damned many of them. After all, he’s got ten siblings and nine children, but only two of them showed any interest in trying to emulate Gibson’s initial superstardom.
His son, Milo, is an actor, but his career has largely been restricted to the sort of straight-to-video genre fare that his old man has been calling home for the last decade and change. His younger brother, Donal, rode the two-time Academy Award winner’s coattails for a while, but when he tried to branch out on his own, he found that the Gibson name had been tarnished by association.
As well as playing small roles in Braveheart, Maverick, and Conspiracy Theory, all of which starred Mel in the lead role, he even replaced him as the voice of John Smith in the animated sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World. He hasn’t appeared in a live-action film since 2004’s Paparazzi, which his brother produced and made a cameo appearance in, and Donal has a sneaking suspicion why.
He theorised that his “career went into the toilet” as a result of Mel’s highly publicised brushes with the law and the regular allegations that were levelled toward his beliefs. “I was getting regular work before The Passion of the Christ, but I think people thought Mel was an antisemite, so they thought I was, too,” he told The Daily Mail.
“I believe I was blacklisted,” Donal theorised. “I believe Mel’s actions meant I couldn’t get work. The Gibson name was toxic. My agent dumped me. The phone stopped ringing. People associated the Gibson name with bigotry, racism, cruelty, hatred, and rage. I’d been working with big studios, such as Warner Bros and Disney. Overnight, it stopped.”
As you might have guessed, the brothers have been estranged for a while, with Donal suggesting that their bond first began to fracture during the period that Mel was a genuine superstar. “Fame changed him,” he said. “He started believing in his own publicity. The Mel I knew disappeared.”
“Hollywood ate him up and spat him out,” he continued. “To me, the fame, the money, it all went to his head and created a monster. I hate what he has become.” On one hand, some folks might accuse Donal of sour grapes, since his sibling’s Hollywood exile has had a clear and obvious effect on his career.
On the other hand, he appeared in over a dozen productions that Mel had nothing to do with, so he was clearly capable of getting work without having to lean on his connections. Either way, what can’t be denied is that his acting career completely stalled, and he lays the blame at the feet of one person, and one person only.
Related Topics