'Richard Tiffany Gere'
[1] (born
August 31,
1949) is an
American actor. He first became famous during the
1980s, after appearing in several successful
Hollywood films, including ''
An Officer and a Gentleman'', and has since retained his status as a leading man. During the 1990s and 2000s, he starred in several well-received films, ''
Pretty Woman'', ''
Primal Fear'', and ''
Chicago'' for which he won a
Golden Globe award as Best Actor.
Biography
Early life
Born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Gere is a descendant of ''
Mayflower''
Pilgrims Francis Eaton,
John Billington,
George Soule,
Richard Warren,
Degory Priest,
William Brewster and
Francis Cooke.
Gere's father, Homer George Gere, was an insurance agent for the
Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. Gere's mother, Doris Anna (
née Tiffany), was a homemaker. He has three sisters and a brother. In 1967, Gere graduated from
North Syracuse Central High School, where he excelled at gymnastics and music, playing the trumpet. He attended the
University of Massachusetts Amherst, on a gymnastics scholarship, majoring in
Philosophy, but did not graduate, leaving after two years to pursue acting.
["Richard Gere Biography", Carey Latimore, ''The Biography Channel''. Retrieved May 1, 2007.]
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 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. In 1980 Gere appeared in the Broadway production of ''
Bent''.
In ''
Mr. Jones'', Gere accurately portrayed a high-functioning, creative, and intellectual man with
bipolar disorder. The movie was not a commercial success, but was well-received by the mental health community. It is frequently utilized as a training tool to acquaint students and families with the disorder.
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 ''
Sommersby'' (1993), ''
Primal Fear'' (1996), and ''
Runaway Bride'' (1999), which paired Gere with his ''Pretty Woman'' co-star,
Julia Roberts. ''
People'' magazine named him the "
Sexiest Man Alive" in 1999.
In 2002, he appeared in three major releases: the horror thriller ''
The Mothman Prophecies'', the drama ''
Unfaithful'', and the
Academy Award-winning 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 was
Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals' "Man of the Year" for 2006. In July 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 September of 2007.
[2]
Personal life & activism
Gere was married to
supermodel Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995. In 2002, he married actress
Carey Lowell. They have a son, Homer James Jigme Gere, who was born in 2000, and is named after Gere's father.
Gere was raised by
Methodist parents;
[3] his interest in
Buddhism began when he travelled to
Nepal in 1978 with the Brazilian painter, Sylvia Martins.
["Richard Gere Biography", Carey Latimore, ''The Biography Channel''. Retrieved May 12, 2007.] He is a practicing Buddhist and an active supporter of the
Dalai Lama. He is also a persistent advocate for
human rights in
Tibet; he is a co-founder of the
Tibet House, creator of The Gere Foundation, and he is Chairman of the Board of Directors for the
International Campaign for Tibet. Because he strongly supports the
Tibetan Independence Movement, he is permanently banned from entering The
People's Republic of China. Gere was banned as an
Academy Award presenter in 1993 after he used the opportunity to condemn the Chinese government.
[4] In September 2007, Gere called for the boycott of the
2008 Beijing Olympic Games to put pressure on
China to make
Tibet independent.
[5]
Gere also campaigns for
ecological causes and
AIDS awareness. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for
Healing the Divide, an organization that supports global initiatives to promote peace, justice and understanding,
[6] and he also actively supports
Survival International, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights and lands of tribal peoples throughout the world.
["Richard Gere Biography", Carey Latimore, ''The Biography Channel''. Retrieved May 12, 2007.] He helped to establish the AIDS Care Home, a residential facility in
India for women and children with AIDS, and also supports campaigns for AIDS awareness and education that country. In 1999 he created the
Gere Foundation India Trust to support a variety of humanitarian programs in India.
[7]
Filmography
References
1. "The New England Ancestry of Actor Richard (Tiffany) Gere"
2. KillerMovies
3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/in_depth/uk/2000/newsmakers/2591237.stm
4. http://www.hellomagazine.com/profiles/richardgere/
5. Richard Gere calls for Beijing Olympic boycott
6. http://www.healingthedivide.org
7. The Gere Foundation. Retrieved May 12, 2007.
External links
★
Forever Gere Fanpage
★
★
Defended India's nuclear tests
★
The Gere Foundation
★
The Druk White Lotus School (
external link) of which Gere is an Honorary Patron.
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