Go Fremantle - Your Community Website that covers Fremantle, Palmyra, East Fremantle, Bicton, South Fremantle, Hilton, White Gum Valley, Beaconsfield, Hamilton Hill. in the suburbs of Perth Western Australia

Nicolle Dickson ...more »
Dickson was born on January 9, 1969 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and grew up in the suburb of Paddington with her trucker family. When she was a child, she was a member in the kids theatre company 'Keane Kids', where she had drama and singing lessons and received her high school education at the Australian Institue of Film and Drama. Having achieved her Higher School Certificate at the end of 1986, Nicolle enrolled at the Sydney College of Art (part of the University of Sydney) to study a BA degree in Visual Arts, majoring in Photography.

In June 1987, whilst in her first academic year at uni, Nicolle (or Nicky) auditioned for the role of Bobby in the early stages of production for a new teen pilot show, Home and Away. Eventually, Home and Away was signed up as a 46-weeks-a-year soap opera on Seven Network and her first episode went out on 17 January 1988 (she went part-time at uni, eventually achieving her degree at the end of 1990) and immediately Nicky was a hit with her stunning performances of Bobby, winning the 'best new talent' category at the Logie Awards in 1989.

When Home and Away was exported to European countries, Nicky's following grew, most notably in the UK, where she became a huge star on the pantomime circuit and an unfortunate regular victim of the tabloids. However, by the end of 1992, Nicky had had enough and decided to quit the show. Her final scenes were filmed on the 2 July 1993 (screened in Australia on August 19, 1993 and the UK on 25 February 1994).

After completing a business and computing course at TAFE, Dickson began a part-time job at the Real Estate agency business owned by her husband, James Bell (who she had married in June 1990). Dickson announced she was pregnant in early 1995 and during her pregnancy made a brief two-episode return to Home and Away (June 1995) as a ghostly Bobby and filmed an episode of GP, in which she played a violent young woman with learning difficulties. She gave birth to her son Licoln in January 1996 and then, in April 1997, filmed a guest appearance in Murder Call, in which she played a murdered reporter named Maddie Herman. After having her second child in 1998, Nicolle then made a guest role in medical drama 'All Saints' in April 2002 as difficult pregnant patient Penny.

In 2006 Dickson appeared on a Home and Away reunion for the flashback show Where Are They Now?.

Mel Gibson  ...more »
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an Academy Award-winning American-born, Australian-raised actor, director, and producer. After establishing himself as a household name with the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon series, Gibson went on to direct and star in 1993's The Man Without a Face and 1995's Academy Award-winning Braveheart. Gibson's direction of Braveheart made him only the sixth actor-turned-filmmaker to garner an Oscar for Best Director. In 2004, he directed and produced The Passion of the Christ, a blockbuster movie that sparked a great deal of controversy. He was also the first person ever awarded People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive".

Gibson was born in Peekskill, New York, the sixth of ten children born to Hutton Gibson and Anne Reilly Gibson. The family also adopted a child, bringing the total number of children in the family to eleven. One of Mel's younger brothers, Donal, is also an actor.

Gibson's first name comes from a 5th-century Irish saint, Mel, founder of the diocese of Ardagh containing most of his mother's native county, while his second name, Columcille is also linked to an Irish saint.. Columcille is the name of the parish in County Longford where Anne Reilly was born and raised.

Although Gibson always maintained his United States citizenship, Gibson's father relocated the family to Australia in 1968, after his father won a work related injury lawsuit against New York Central after a seven day trial on February 14, 1968 where the jury awarded him $145,000. The family moved when Gibson was twelve. This move was in protest of the Vietnam War for which Gibson's elder brothers risked being drafted. It is also because Gibson's father believed that changes in American society were immoral.

Gibson graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney in 1977, and his acting career began in Australia with appearances in television series, including The Sullivans, Cop Shop and Punishment.

He made his Australian film debut as the leather-clad post-apocalyptic survivor in George Miller's Mad Max, which later became a cult hit and launched two sequels. His international profile increased through Peter Weir's Gallipoli. Gibson's handsome boyish good looks made him a natural for leading male roles.

In 1984, he made his U.S. film debut as Fletcher Christian in The Bounty. Reportedly, Gibson and Anthony Hopkins, his costar on the film, did not get along during the shoot. At the time, Anthony Hopkins was a teetotaler, and Mel Gibson was struggling with alcoholism. Gibson frequently spent his evenings in local saloons and took to mixing two shots of Scotch with his beer. He dubbed the concoction "Liquid Violence". In one incident, Gibson's face was severely cut up in a bar room brawl and the film's shooting schedule had to be rearranged while he was flown to a hospital in Papeete.

Gibson moved into more mainstream commercial filmmaking with the popular Lethal Weapon series, in which he starred as LAPD Detective Martin Riggs, an emotionally unstable Vietnam veteran with a death wish and a penchant for violence and gunplay. In the films, he was partnered with the elder and more reserved Roger Murtaugh (played by Danny Glover). This series would come to exemplify the action genre's so-called buddy film.

Despite having been trained in two different schools of acting (Gibson is classically trained and Glover is a method actor), the two shared good chemistry. The film was a major hit and spawned three sequels.

Gibson then made the unusual transition from the action to classical genres, playing the melancholy Danish prince in Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet. Gibson was cast alongside such experienced Shakespearean actors as Ian Holm, Alan Bates, and Paul Scofield. He described working with his fellow cast members as similar to being "thrown into the ring with Mike Tyson".

Over the course of the shoot in the Scottish Highlands, Gibson was advised that he would do better with the lines if he were able to control his breathing. A longtime chain smoker, Gibson switched to nicotine gum to moderate his smoking for parts of the shoot.[citation needed]

The film met with critical and marketing success and remains steady in DVD sales. It also marked the transformation of Mel Gibson from action hero to serious actor and filmmaker. Later in his career, he complemented his dramatic performances with comedic roles in Maverick and What Women Want.

Gibson stated that when the Braveheart script arrived and was recommended by his agents, he rejected it outright because he thought he was too old to play the part. After careful thought, he decided to not only act in the film, but to direct it as well.

Gibson received two Academy Awards, Best Director and Best Picture, for his 1995 direction of Braveheart. In the movie, Gibson starred as Sir William Wallace, a thirteenth-century Scottish freedom fighter.

He said in interviews that he was attempting to make a film similar to the epics he had loved as a child, such as Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus and The Big Country. The filming began in the Scottish Highlands. After learning that the intended filming locations were among the rainiest spots in Europe, the shooting was moved to Ireland, where members of the Irish Army Reserve worked as extras in the battle scenes.

Gibson co-wrote, produced and directed the controversial The Passion of the Christ. The 2004 film was based on the last twelve hours of the life of Jesus, rendered multilingually in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin.

Reviews were mixed, with critics ranging from praising the film for its realistic depiction of Jesus' final hours from a Catholic point of view and criticism of violence, manipulation and charges of anti-Semitism.

Asked if his movie would "upset Jews", Gibson responded, "It's not meant to. I think it's meant to just tell the truth. I want to be as truthful as possible." Accusations of anti-Semitism were fueled by revelations that Mel Gibson's father Hutton Gibson is a vocal Holocaust "minimizer" who believes much of the Holocaust is "fiction".

On his decision to cut the scene in which Caiaphas says "his blood be on us and on our children" soon after Pontius Pilate washes his hands of Jesus, Gibson said:

"I wanted it in. My brother said I was wimping out if I didn't include it. But, man, if I included that in there, they'd be coming after me at my house. They'd come to kill me."

The movie grossed US$611,899,420 worldwide and $370,782,930 in the US alone. It became the eighth highest-grossing film in history and the highest-grossing rated R film of all time. The ticket sales were boosted by the film attracting viewers who generally do not attend theaters, including entire church congregations. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Music Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Makeup at the 77th Academy Awards and won the People's Choice Award for Best Drama.

Gibson's next historical epic, Apocalypto, will be released to theaters in December 2006. The film is set in Mesoamerica, about 500 years before the Spanish conquest. It focuses on the decline of the Maya civilization which reached its zenith around 600 AD. Dialogue is spoken in the Yucatec Maya language, in the same way Gibson used Aramaic and Latin for his The Passion of the Christ. It will feature a cast of unknown actors from Mexico City, the Yucatán, and some Native Americans from the United States.

While Gibson financed the film himself, Disney will release it in specific markets.

All that has been revealed about the plot is that the film is set against the turbulent end times of the once great Mayan civilization. When a Mayan man's idyllic existence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.

The title is a Greek term which means "an unveiling" or "new beginning", but the movie is not religiously themed or connected to the biblical Apocalypse.

Disney insists that Apocalypto will be released as scheduled. Gibson recently pre-screened Apocalypto to two predominantly Native American audiences in Oklahoma, at the Riverwind Casino in Goldsby, owned by the Chickasaw Nation, and at Cameron University in Lawton.

    * Gibson was born with a physical anomaly called "horseshoe kidney". His two kidneys are fused at the base into a U-shape. This fusion anomaly occurs in about one of every 400 people.
    * In December 2004, Gibson purchased Mago Island from Tokyu Corporation of Japan for $15 million. Descendants of the original native inhabitants of Mago (who were displaced in the 1860s) have protested the purchase.
    * Prior to making The Passion of the Christ, Gibson constructed a traditionalist Catholic chapel on his California estate.
    * Gibson almost did not get the role that made him a star. His agent got him an audition for Mad Max, but the night before, he got into a drunken brawl with three other men at a party, resulting in a swollen nose, a broken jawline, and various other bruises. Mel showed up at the audition the next day looking like a "black and blue pumpkin" (his own words). Mel did not expect to get the role and only went to accompany his friend. However, the casting agent told Mel to come back in two weeks, telling him "we need freaks". Mel did come back, was not recognized because his wounds had healed almost completely, and received the part. This incident is listed in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
    * Gibson was considered for roles in Batman, GoldenEye, Amadeus, Gladiator, The Golden Child, X-Men, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Runaway Bride and Primary Colors.
    * A smoker for much of his acting career, in 2004 Gibson was persuaded by his wife to limit his addiction to just three cigarettes a day.
    * Actor Sean Connery once suggested Gibson should play the next James Bond to Connery's M. Gibson turned down the role, reportedly because he feared being typecast.
    * Gibson is an admirer of the Baroque works of Caravaggio. Much of the cinematography of The Passion of the Christ was done to evoke the painter's style.
    * Gibson's height is disputed. Varied sources place him from 5'6" (170cm) to 5'11" (180cm).
    * Gibson was not the only actor to have voiced out comments against Jewish influence in society. Marlon Brando once spoke on Larry King Live how the media avoids to harm or slander the Jewish image while at the same time showing images of Arab, Latino, or Black "crimes."
    * On July 25 1997, Mel Gibson was awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia, which was country's highest honor for "recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service". He was awarded this as a result of his "service to the Australian film industry".
    * Gibson has multiple homes in Malibu, CA, an estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, a private island off the coast of Fiji and a ranch in Australia.

Steven Jacobs ...more »
Steven Jacobs (born 196? in Wollongong, New South Wales) is an Australian television presenter and actor.

He has appeared on many Nine Network productions, the first notable one of which was All Together Now (which he appeared on from 1990-1993) as well as hosting Just Kidding! and What's Up Doc? in the early '90s.

Later on Jacobs became a comedy writer for the reincarnation of In Melbourne Tonight as well as a prominent part of the show.

In 2005 he took over from Sami Lukis as the on-location weather presenter for The Today Show.

Rachel Friend ...more »
Rachel Friend (born January 8, 1970) is an Australian actress. From 1988 to 1990 she played the role of Bronwyn Davies on popular soap opera Neighbours. Other roles have included the movies The Quest (1986) and Golden Fiddles (1991).

In 1990, she won the Logie Award for Most Popular Actress and appeared on the cover of TV Week showing off her new trophy.

In 1993 she married Australian actor-singer Craig McLachlan whom she met on the set of Neighbours. Their characters Bronwyn and Henry had also earlier married in the show. They divorced in 1994.

She married Australian cricketer Stuart MacGill in 2000, and they have two children. They both currently host the Channel 7 show New Idea Saturday Kitchen on Saturday afternoon.

Adriana Xenides ...more »
Adriana Xenides (b. 1955 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an Australian television personality, notable for her long-running appearance as assistant host on Wheel of Fortune. She is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest running game show host, having appeared as assistant host on Wheel of Fortune for 18 years. Xenides first appeared on Wheel of Fortune at the age of 22.

Later television appearances were as a panelist on panel talk show Beauty and the Beast, and the Australian version of Celebrity Big Brother Australia during 2002.

Adriana was charged in late 2005 with dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm as she was alleged to have caused a crash injuring another driver. A warrant was issued for her arrest as she failed to present herself to the court to defend the charge, however she later contested the charge by pleading not guilty.

On 12 September 2006, Adriana was disqualified from driving for 18 months and placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond. The court was also told that Xenides is suffering from depression. She had faced a maximum sentence of seven years in jail, a fine of up to $1,000 and an automatic disqualification of her licence for three years. The court decided against imposing a fine because of Xenides' financial situation and reduced the automatic disqualification because she requires a licence to carry out her current work as an aged carer.