Richard Gere

Richard Tiffany Gere (born August 31, 1949) is an American actor.

Biography

Early life

Gere was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Methodist parents of Anglo-Irish descent. His father, Homer George Gere, owned a small insurance company and his mother, Doris Anna Tiffany, was a housewife; he has three sisters and a brother.

In 1967, Gere graduated from North Syracuse Central High School, where he excelled at gymnastics and music (he played the trumpet). He attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, but left college after two years to pursue acting and a professional trumpet career.

Career

Gere's first major acting role was in the original London stage version of Grease in 1973. He began appearing in Hollywood films in the mid 1970s, co-starring in the sexual thriller, Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), and playing the leading role in director Terrence Malick's well-reviewed 1978 film, Days of Heaven. His acting career took off in 1980, with the successful film American Gigolo, followed by the popular romantic drama An Officer and a Gentleman, which had grossed over $100 million in 1982. Subsequently, he was the first man ever to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine.

Gere's career in the 1980s alternated between box office successes and failures. After the release of both Internal Affairs and the huge hit Pretty Woman in 1990, Gere's status as a leading man was again solidified, and he continued starring in solidly performing films throughout the 1990s, including 1993's Sommersby, 1996's Primal Fear and 1999's Runaway Bride, which re-teamed Gere with his "Pretty Woman" co-star, Julia Roberts. People magazine named him the "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1999.

2002 was a notable year for Gere, with three major releases; The Mothman Prophecies, a horror thriller which received some decent reviews, Unfaithful, a solid performer at the box office, and the critically acclaimed film version of Chicago, for which he won a Golden Globe as "Best Actor - Comedy or Musical". Gere's 2004 ballroom dancing drama, Shall We Dance, was also a solid performer, although his next film, Bee Season, largely failed to find an audience amid the Oscar-contenders of November 2005.

Gere is Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals' "Man of the Year" for 2006.^* In July of 2006, Gere was cast opposite Jesse Eisenberg and Terrence Howard in Spring Break in Bosnia, a comic thriller in which he will play a journalist in Bosnia; the film will be released in 2007.

Private life

Gere was married to supermodel Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995. He married actress Carey Lowell in 2002, after dating her for several years. They have a son, Homer James Jigme Gere, who was born in 2000, and is named after Gere's father ^*.

Gere is a well known Buddhist and an active supporter of the Dalai Lama. He has also been a persistent advocate for better human rights in Tibet, and was a co-founder of the Tibet House and served on the Board of Directors for the International Campaign For Tibet. He also campaigns for ecological causes and for AIDS awareness, and has expressed his concern for AIDS problems in India.^*

His devotion to such causes resulted in Gere being banned as an Academy Award presenter in 1993 after he used the opportunity to condemn the Chinese government.^*

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role
2007	Spring Break in Bosnia
2005	Bee Season	Saul Naumann
2004	Shall We Dance	John Clark
2002	Chicago	Billy Flynn
	Unfaithful	Edward Sumner
	The Mothman Prophecies	John Klein
2000	Dr. T & the Women	Dr. T
2000	Autumn in New York	Will Keane
1999	Runaway Bride	Ike Graham
1997	The Jackal	Declan Joseph Mulqueen
1997	Red Corner	Jack Moore
1996	Primal Fear	Martin Vail
1995	First Knight	Lancelot
1994	Intersection	Vincent Eastman
1993	Mr. Jones	Mr. Jones
1993	Sommersby	John Robert 'Jack' Sommersby
1992	Final Analysis	Dr. Isaac Barr
1990	Pretty Woman	Edward Lewis
1990	Internal Affairs (film)	Dennis Peck
1988	Miles from Home	Frank Roberts, Jr.
1986	No Mercy	Eddie Jillette
1986	Power	Pete St. John
1985	King David	David
1984	The Cotton Club	Dixie Dwyer
1983	Beyond the Limit	Dr. Eduardo Plarr
1983	Breathless	Jesse Lujack
1982	An Officer and a Gentleman	Zack Mayo
1980	American Gigolo	Julian Kaye
1979	Yanks	Matt
1978	Bloodbrothers	Thomas Stony De Coco
1978	Days of Heaven	Bill
1977	Looking for Mr. Goodbar	Tony Lo Porto

He has also appeared in a 2006 VISA card advertisement on television.

References

Footnotes

Interviews

Cinema Confidential interview (November 18, 2005)
Pop Entertainment interview (November, 2005)
About.com interview (May, 2002)
Filmmonthly interview (January 12, 2002)
SciFi Online interview (January, 2002)
"My Journey as a Buddhist", interview on Gere's religion (1999)
Rochester Goes Out interview (July 30, 1999)
Esquire magazine interview (July, 1995)

Web sites

article on Gere's ancestry and famous relations
AceShowbiz Database
Defended India's nuclear tests
Hello Magazine, Hello! Profile
The Gere Foundation, dedicated to end the Chinese Occupation of Tibet

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