winning director and producer whose films have taken in billions at the box office. i feel like a hundred bucks. mel gibson is probably the most complicated, fascinating, infewerating, talented star hollywood has ever produced. reporter: from mad max don t get mad at me. reporter: to maverick. do you really want to jump? reporter: lethal weapon to braveheart he was what women want and what men want to be. you re like a genius, you know that. can i tell you, buddy, i m blessed. reporter: but the audience s love affair with mel gibson would take a turn for the worse on this highway. caught driving drunk, gibson mouthed off to police. it was a dark mel moment now upstaged by his profanity-laced telephone rant. you like a [ bleep ] on heat and if you get raped by a pack of [ bleep ] it will be your fault, all right, because you provoked it. reporter: angry slurs at his baby s momma, oksana, but those leaked rants became the least of gibson s co
telephone rant. you like a [ bleep ] on heat and if you get raped by a pack of [ bleep ] it will be your fault, all right, because you provoked it. reporter: angry slurs at his baby s momma, oksana, but those leaked rants became the least of gibson s concerns as the actor faced possible domestic violence charges stemming from an altercation with oksana early last year, a drastic departure from the film star once known best as a family man and a person of passionate faith. people are wondering, was the mel we knew and loved, was that really mel gibson, or is this mel gibson? reporter: mel gibson first made noise on january 3rd, 1956. his birth announcement in the local paper reads, a son to mr. and mrs. hutton gibson of verplank. that s this small river town in upstate new york where the family lived for a few years in this modest home.