George Miller Biography

George Miller is the film director, producer and writer who made the successful Mad Max movie series, from 1979’s Mad Max to 2015’s Fury Road. He grew up in rural Australia and studied medicine at the University of New South Wales. While practicing medicine he worked on film crews in his spare time, and in 1971 he joined Byron Kennedy to form a film production company. Miller gave up being a doctor, and after a few short films made Mad Max, a post-apocalyptic thriller that was an international success and the first big film for Mel Gibson. The sequel, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, was an even bigger hit in 1981 and was followed in 1985 by Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Miller’s partner Kennedy was killed in a helicopter crash in 1983, but the production company kept working, and Miller produced but did not direct The Year My Voice Broke (1987), Dead Calm (1989) and Flirting (1991). He also earned an Oscar nomination for writing 1992’s Lorenzo’s Oil. Since then he’s been nominated for other Oscars for Babe (1995, a best picture nominee) and Happy Feet (2006, which won as best animated feature). The fourth Mad Max film, Fury Road, starred Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult, with Tom Hardy in the Mel Gibson role. It earned 10 Oscar nominations, including for best picture. In addition to feature films, Miller has been quite active in Australian television.