Richard Gere
Template:Short description Template:Pp-vandalism Template:Pp-move Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person
Richard Tiffany Gere (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell;<ref>NLS Other Writings: Say How, E-H – National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) | Library of Congress Template:Webarchive. Loc.gov. Retrieved on September 8, 2019.</ref><ref>The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary Template:Webarchive. Speech.cs.cmu.edu. Retrieved on September 8, 2019.</ref> born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began appearing in films in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and a starring role in Days of Heaven (1978). Gere came to prominence with his role in the film American Gigolo (1980), which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gere's other films include An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), The Cotton Club (1984), No Mercy (1986), Pretty Woman (1990), Sommersby (1993), Intersection (1994), First Knight (1995), Primal Fear (1996), Runaway Bride (1999), Dr. T & the Women (2000), Shall We Dance? (2004), I'm Not There (2007), Arbitrage (2012) and Norman (2016). For portraying Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago (2002), he won a Golden Globe Award.
Early life and education
[edit]Gere was born in Philadelphia on August 31, 1949,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the eldest son and second child of homemaker Doris Ann (Template:Nee Tiffany; 1924Template:Ndash2016) and NMIC insurance agent Homer George Gere (1922–2023).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His father originally intended to become a minister.<ref name="actors">Stated in interview on Inside the Actors Studio, 2002.</ref> Gere was raised Methodist<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in Syracuse, New York.<ref name="History.com coverage of birth">Template:Cite web</ref> His paternal great-grandfather, George Lane Gere (1848–1932), changed the spelling of his surname from "Geer". One of his ancestors, also named George, was an Englishman who came from Heavitree, England, and settled in the Connecticut Colony in 1638.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Both of Gere's parents were Mayflower descendants; his ancestors include Pilgrims such as John Billington, William Brewster, Francis Eaton, Francis Cooke, Degory Priest, George Soule and Richard Warren.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1967, Gere graduated from North Syracuse Central High School, where he excelled at gymnastics and music and played the trumpet.<ref name="actors"/> Gere attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst on a gymnastics scholarship, studying philosophy; after two years, he left and did not graduate.<ref name="actors"/><ref name="BiographyChannel">"Richard Gere Biography" Template:Webarchive, Carey Latimore, The Biography Channel; retrieved May 1, 2008.</ref>
Career
[edit]
Gere first worked professionally at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Provincetown Playhouse on Cape Cod in 1969, where he starred in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. His first major acting role was in the 1971 rock opera Soon, written by Scott Fagan and Joe Kookoolis, which opened on Broadway at the Ritz Theatre and closed after three performances.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Following that, he appeared in the original London stage version of Grease, in 1973.<ref name="actors" /> Gere was one of the first notable Hollywood actors to play a homosexual character, starring as a gay Holocaust victim in the 1979 Broadway production of Bent, for which he earned a Theatre World Award.
Gere began appearing in Hollywood films in the mid-1970s. Originally cast in a starring role in The Lords of Flatbush (1974), he was replaced after fighting with his co-star Sylvester Stallone. Gere played a small but significant part in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and starred in director Terrence Malick's well-reviewed drama Days of Heaven (1978).<ref name="actors" /> The crime drama American Gigolo (1980) significantly boosted his profile and the romantic drama An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) (co-starring Debra Winger) cemented Gere's ascent to stardom, grossing almost $130 million<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and winning two Academy Awards out of six nominations;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gere himself received his first Golden Globe Award nomination.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> For the remainder of the 1980s, Gere appeared in films of varying critical and commercial reception.<ref name="mojo">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="rotten">Template:Cite web</ref> His career rebounded with the releases of Internal Affairs (1990) and Pretty Woman (1990), the latter of which earned Gere his second Golden Globe Award nomination.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The 1990s saw Gere star in successful films including Sommersby (1993) (opposite Jodie Foster), Primal Fear (1996) and Runaway Bride (1999) (which reunited him with his Pretty Woman co-star Julia Roberts).<ref name="mojo" /> He also took a leading role in the action thriller The Jackal (1997), playing former IRA militant Declan Mulqueen; Gere affected an Irish accent for the role.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Gere was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1999. Not long thereafter, all in the same year, he appeared in the hit films The Mothman Prophecies (2002), Unfaithful (2002), and the Academy Award-winning musical film adaptation Chicago (2002),<ref name="actors" /> for which Gere won his first Golden Globe Award. His ballroom dancing drama Shall We Dance? (2004) was also a solid performer that grossed $170 million worldwide.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His next film, the book-to-screen adaptation Bee Season (2005), was a commercial failure.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gere went on to co-star with Jesse Eisenberg and Terrence Howard in The Hunting Party (2007), a thriller in which he played a journalist in Bosnia. He next appeared with Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Cate Blanchett in Todd Haynes' semi-biographical film about Bob Dylan, I'm Not There (2007); Gere was one of six actors to portray a variation of Dylan. He co-starred with Diane Lane in the romantic drama Nights in Rodanthe (2008). The film was widely panned by critics<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (making #74 on The Times Worst Films of 2008 list),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> but grossed over $84 million worldwide.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film is his most recent to have been produced entirely by a major film studio.
Gere has expressed a belief that his politics regarding China, an important financial resource for major Hollywood studios, have made him unwelcome within Hollywood.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Gere embraced his apparent exile from Hollywood and instead appeared in independent films that garnered some of the best reviews of his career.<ref name="rotten" /> Gere was notably singled out for portraying businessman Robert Miller in Arbitrage (2012), earning his fourth Golden Globe Award nomination. Among many positive reviews,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Peter Travers of Rolling Stone cited Gere's performance as "too good to ignore" and "an implosive tour de force".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Also in 2012, he received the Golden Starfish Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Hamptons International Film Festival and the Career Achievement Award from the Hollywood Film Awards.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gere had earlier received an award from the 34th Cairo International Film Festival in December 2010.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Gere made a notable departure from his traditional screen persona with Joseph Cedar's political drama Norman (2016). The film saw Gere portray Norman Oppenheimer, a small-time Jewish fixer. Gere himself described the character as an embodiment of the "sides of us we know are annoying and needy".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His portrayal of Oppenheimer was called "consistently, completely fascinating" by RogerEbert.com<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and was singled out as a worthy Academy Award contender by Variety.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Gere is an accomplished musician, composing and performing the Pretty Woman piano theme and a guitar solo in Runaway Bride. He studied tap for three months to shoot half a day of dancing for his role as lawyer Billy Flynn in Chicago.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also studied karate for An Officer and a Gentleman.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Multiple film critics and media outlets have cited Gere as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
Political views and activism
[edit]
Gere regularly visits Dharamshala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He is an advocate for human rights in Tibet and is a co-founder of the Tibet House US, creator of the Gere Foundation, and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the International Campaign for Tibet. Because he supports the Tibetan Independence Movement, Gere is permanently banned from entering China.<ref>Yahlin Chang, 'Red Corner,' Newsweek (New York) November 10, 1997: Gere has already been banned from entering China for his pro-Tibet activities.</ref><ref>Laurence Caracalla, Harrison Ford, Silverback Books, 2007, pg. 93. ISBN 978-2-7528-0247-7</ref> In 2017, Gere stated he believed his advocacy had resulted in him no longer being cast in Hollywood blockbusters so as not to offend the growing Chinese audience for blockbuster films, with China now the second-largest film market in the world.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1993, Gere was banned from being an Academy Award presenter after he denounced the Chinese government while announcing the nominees.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In September 2007, Gere called for the boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to put pressure on China to make Tibet independent.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He starred in a Free Tibet-themed Lancia commercial featuring the Lancia Delta.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On June 27, 2011, Gere meditated in Borobudur Temple<ref>Richard Gere Ingin Kembali ke Candi Borobudur Template:Webarchive</ref> in Indonesia. He actively supports Survival International, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights and lands of tribal peoples throughout the world.<ref name="biochannel"/>
Gere 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gere 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 in that country. In 1999, he created the Gere Foundation India Trust to support a variety of humanitarian programs in India.<ref>The Gere Foundation Template:Webarchive; retrieved May 12, 2007.</ref>
On April 15, 2007, Gere appeared at an AIDS awareness rally in Jaipur. During a live news conference to promote condom use among truck drivers, he embraced Bollywood superstar Shilpa Shetty, dipped her, and kissed her several times on the cheek. As a result of that gesture, a local court ordered the arrest of Gere and Shetty, finding them in violation of public obscenity laws. Gere has said the controversy was "manufactured by a small hard-line political party". About a month later, a two-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, K. G. Balakrishnan, described the case as "frivolous" and believed that such complaints against celebrities were filed for "cheap publicity" and have brought a bad name to the country. They ruled that Gere would remain free to enter the country.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Gere contributed some of his writing for the book We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gere discussed the persecution and loss of land of the Jumma people as an example of a tragic story that repeats itself in different continents of the world, calling attention to the crime against their peaceful culture and how it reflects on humanity's relationship with nature and capacity to survive.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The royalties from the book's sale go to the indigenous rights organization Survival International.
In 2010, Gere stated that the war in Iraq was not supported by the American people and that the presidency of George W. Bush had "bullied" Americans into the decision.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He called George W. Bush a "very poor president".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In a press conference held on the sidelines of the 34th Cairo International Film Festival, Gere said, "I'm very sorry about what the U.S. has done in Iraq. This war has been a tragedy for everyone. I hope that the people of Iraq can rebuild their country."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2016, Gere endorsed Hillary Clinton for president and donated $2,700 to her campaign.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2017, Gere criticized Benjamin Netanyahu's policies on the Palestinians and Israel's expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, stating, "Settlements are such an absurd provocation and, certainly in the international sense, completely illegal—and they are certainly not part of the program of someone who wants a genuine peace process."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In February 2023, Gere was one of the 480 global figures who signed a statement from Freedom House expressing support for Mahsa Amini protesters, urging sanctions on Iranian officials, and calling for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be proscribed as a terror group.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Personal life
[edit]
Gere had on-again/off-again relationships with actress Penelope Milford from 1971 to 1978,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and painter Sylvia Martins from 1978 to 1986.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> During those years, he was also sporadically linked with Tuesday Weld,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Carole Mallory,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Dawn Steel,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Loree Rodkin,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Barbara Carrera,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Barbra Streisand.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It was suggested that Gere had affairs with Priscilla Presley and Kim Basinger in tell-all books written by Presley's ex-boyfriend Michael Edwards<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Basinger's ex-husband Ron Snyder.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Gere has also reportedly dated models Laura Bailey,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Tina Chow,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Dalila Di Lazzaro,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Padma Lakshmi.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was married to model Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995.Template:Cn
In November 2002, Gere married model and actress Carey Lowell.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> They have a son, Homer James Jigme Gere, who was born in February 2000 and is named for his grandfathers as well as the Tibetan name "Jigme".<ref name="actors"/><ref name=people2000>Template:Cite news</ref> In September 2013, the two separated after 11 years of marriage. They spent three years in highly contested divorce proceedings in New York County Supreme Court.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The case was settled in October 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In early April 2018, Gere married Spanish activist Alejandra Silva.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In August 2018, they announced that they were expecting their first child;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> their son was born in February 2019.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In April 2020, the birth of their second son was reported.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Gere's interest in Buddhism began when he was in his 20s.<ref name="shambsun">Template:Cite web</ref> Gere first studied Zen Buddhism<ref name="shambsun"/> under Kyozan Joshu Sasaki. After studying Zen for five or six years,<ref name="shambsun"/> he and Brazilian painter Sylvia Martins traveled in 1978 to Nepal, where Gere met many Tibetan monks and lamas.<ref name="biochannel">Template:Cite web</ref> He then met the 14th Dalai Lama in India<ref name="shambsun"/> and became a practicing Tibetan Buddhist (specifically of the Gelugpa school)<ref name="shambsun"/> and an active supporter of the Dalai Lama.<ref name="actors"/>
In February 2023, Gere was diagnosed and hospitalized with pneumonia during a family vacation in Nuevo Vallarta in Mexico. It was reported by his wife that he had fully recovered from his illness.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Gere has often been included on lists of famous vegetarians. However, his status as a vegetarian is disputed.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Filmography
[edit]| Template:Dagger | Denotes titles that have not yet been released |
Film
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Report to the Commissioner | Billy | |
| 1976 | Baby Blue Marine | Raider | |
| 1977 | Looking for Mr. Goodbar | Tony Lopanto | |
| 1978 | Bloodbrothers | Thomas Stony De Coco | |
| Days of Heaven | Bill | ||
| 1979 | Yanks | Matt Dyson | |
| 1980 | American Gigolo | Julian Kaye | |
| 1982 | An Officer and a Gentleman | Zack Mayo | |
| 1983 | The Honorary Consul | Dr. Eduardo Plarr | a.k.a. Beyond the Limit |
| Breathless | Jesse Lujack | ||
| 1984 | The Cotton Club | Dixie Dwyer | |
| 1985 | King David | David | |
| 1986 | No Mercy | Eddie Jillette | |
| Power | Pete St. John | ||
| 1988 | Miles from Home | Frank Roberts, Jr. | |
| 1990 | Internal Affairs | Dennis Peck | |
| Pretty Woman | Edward Lewis | ||
| 1991 | Rhapsody in August | Clark | |
| 1992 | Final Analysis | Dr. Isaac Barr | Also executive producer |
| 1993 | Mr. Jones | Mr. Jones | |
| Sommersby | John Robert 'Jack' Sommersby | ||
| 1994 | Intersection | Vincent Eastman | |
| 1995 | First Knight | Lancelot | |
| 1996 | Primal Fear | Martin Vail | |
| 1997 | The Jackal | Declan Joseph Mulqueen | |
| Red Corner | Jack Moore | ||
| 1999 | Runaway Bride | Homer Eisenhower "Ike" Graham | |
| 2000 | Dr. T & the Women | Dr. T | |
| Autumn in New York | Will Keane | ||
| 2002 | The Mothman Prophecies | John Klein | |
| Unfaithful | Edward Sumner | ||
| Chicago | William "Billy" Flynn | ||
| 2004 | Shall We Dance? | John Clark | |
| 2005 | Bee Season | Saul Naumann | |
| 2006 | The Hoax | Clifford Irving | |
| 2007 | The Hunting Party | Simon | |
| I'm Not There | Bob Dylan as Billy The Kid | ||
| The Flock | Agent Erroll Babbage | ||
| 2008 | Nights in Rodanthe | Dr. Paul Flanner | |
| 2009 | Amelia | George Putnam | |
| Hachi: A Dog's Tale | Parker Wilson | Also producer | |
| Brooklyn's Finest | Eddie Dugan | ||
| 2011 | The Double | Paul Shepherdson | |
| 2012 | Arbitrage | Robert Miller | |
| 2013 | Movie 43 | Boss | Segment: "iBabe" |
| 2014 | Henry & Me | Henry | Voice<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| Time Out of Mind | George Hammond | Also producer<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | |
| 2015 | The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel | Guy Chambers | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| The Benefactor | Franny | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | |
| 2016 | Norman | Norman Oppenheimer | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| 2017 | The Dinner | Stan Lohman | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| Three Christs | Dr. Alan Stone | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | |
| 2023 | Maybe I Do | Howard | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| 2024 | Oh, Canada | Leonard Fife | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| Longing | Daniel | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
Television
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Chelsea D.H.O. | Milo | Television film |
| Strike Force | Officer Walter C. Spenser | ||
| 1976 | Kojak | Geno Papas | Episode: "Birthday Party" |
| 1993 | And the Band Played On | The Choreographer | Television film |
| 2001 | The Simpsons | Himself (voice) | Episode: "She of Little Faith" |
| 2014 | Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey | Clair Cameron Patterson (voice) | Episode: "The Clean Room" |
| 2019 | MotherFatherSon | Max Finch | 8 episodes |
| 2020 | Martha Knows Best | Himself | Episode: "Perennial Garden"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| 2024 | The Agency | James 'Bosko' Bradley | 10 episodes |
Awards and honors
[edit]In 1995, Gere was the president of the jury at the 19th Moscow International Film Festival.<ref name="Moscow1995">Template:Cite web</ref>
On May 17, 2012, Albanian President, Bamir Topi awarded the Medal of Gratitude to Gere with the citation: "With gratitude and honor outstanding personality of the world art, great humanist and activist for the protection of human rights, which unmasked and the American public made known, and further, inhuman crimes, ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, in 1999, the Serbian military machine against the Albanian civilian population living in its land."<ref>President Topi dekoron zotin Riçard Gir me “Medaljen e Mirënjohjes”Template:Dead link, President of Albania, May 17, 2012 (in Albanian)</ref> On February 16, 2012, the George Eastman Museum honored Gere with the George Eastman Award for distinguished contribution to the art of film.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
References
[edit]External links
[edit]- Template:IMDb name
- Template:Iobdb name
- Template:Rotten Tomatoes
- Template:Webarchive
- The Gere Foundation
- The Druk White Lotus School (external link) of which Gere is an Honorary Patron
- Melvin McLeod Richard Gere: My Journey as a Buddhist Template:Webarchive
- Pages with broken file links
- 1949 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American male actors
- 21st-century American male actors
- Activists from New York (state)
- Activists from Philadelphia
- American health activists
- American human rights activists
- American male film actors
- American male musical theatre actors
- American male television actors
- American people of English descent
- Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
- Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism
- David di Donatello winners
- Film directors from New York (state)
- Film directors from Pennsylvania
- Film producers from New York (state)
- Film producers from Pennsylvania
- Former Methodists
- American HIV/AIDS activists
- Male actors from Philadelphia
- Male actors from Syracuse, New York
- American nonviolence advocates
- Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- People from Onondaga County, New York
- Tibetan Buddhists from the United States
- UMass Minutemen and Minutewomen athletes