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American Gigolo
Background:
"I honestly do not think about celebrity or image or sexual expectations on me.
It only comes up when people have a list of questions. But what I am told is
that there is a quality that I have onscreen, where it's a little bit of
everything." Richard Gere
Movie hunk and celebrity Buddhist Richard Gere was first noticed while playing
roles in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and Days of Heaven (1978). The
charismatic actor subsequently became the leading man in such films as American
Gigolo (1980), An Officer and A Gentleman (1982), The Cotton Club (1984), Pretty
Woman (1990), Runaway Bride (1999), Unfaithful (2002), Chicago (2002, won Best
Actor Golden Globe), Shall We Dance (2004) and Bee Season (2005). On stage, he
was first praised for an off-Broadway appearance in Killer's Head (1975) and
later won a Theatre World for performing in Broadway’s "Bent" (1980). His
upcoming films include The Hoax, I'm Not There: Suppositions on a Film
Concerning Dylan, The Flock, and Emperor Zehnder.
Archetypal, handsome Richard Gere, one of the most successful sex symbols of the
'80s and early '90s, was voted People Magazine's “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1999 and
became the first man ever to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine. The 5' 10
1/2'' tall, Irish-American humanitarian and actor was also one of John Willis'
Screen World’s twelve "Promising New Actors of 1977" and People magazine’s “The
50 Most Beautiful People in The World” (1991). Privately, the ex-husband of
supermodel Cindy Crawford was linked to actress Penelope Milford (together five
years), executive Dawn Steel (1975-1978) and Brazilian painter Sylvia Martins.
He is currently the husband of actress Carey Lowell and has one son with her.
Tibetans Radiate
Childhood and Family:
"I don't want to be a personality." Richard Gere
The second child of Anglo-Irish parents Homer Gere (insurance salesman) and
Doris Gere, Richard Tiffany Gere was born on August 31, 1949, in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Along with his four siblings (three sisters and one brother),
Richard grew up in a strict Methodist family, on a farm outside of Syracuse, New
York, where young Richard spent much of his time writing and playing music.
Richard Gere graduated from North Syracuse Central High School in 1967, where he
was a member of the student council, gymnastics, lacrosse, ski, and music team
(he played the trumpet and wrote music for high school productions). He won a
gymnastics scholarship to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst,
Massachusetts, where he majored in philosophy and drama. Two years later, in
1969, Gere dropped out to pursue acting. He also pursued a professional
trumpeting career.
On December 12, 1991, Richard Gere exchanged wedding vows with supermodel Cindy
Cawford at the Little Church of the West, in Las Vegas, but they divorced in
1995. That same year, he began dating actress Carey Lowell and the couple
eventually tied the knot on November 9, 2002. Gere and Lowell have one son,
Homer James Jigme Gere ("Jigme" means "fearless" in Tibetan), born on February
6, 2000.
Of screen, Gere, who switched his faith to the Tibetan school of Buddhism and
became a student of the exiled Dalai Lama, is a founding member (with composer
Philip Glass and several academics) of Tibet House, a nonprofit organization
based in NYC's Greenwich Village, which is dedicated to the preservation of
Tibetan culture. He is also President of The Gere Foundation, a non-profit
organization founded in 1991 focusing on international humanitarian issues, with
emphasis on Tibet. Additionally, Gere campaigns for ecological causes and AIDS
awareness.
"When I am there [Tibet], I am very happy. The Tibetans radiate. They literally
send out light. His Holiness [the Dalai Lama] generates love and compassion to
every human being. He has committed himself to that. I haven't made that leap
yet. I haven't given up self-aspiration. I still love making movies." Richard
Gere
Leading Man
Career:
An excelled musician, Richard Gere began acting by joining the Provincetown
Playhouse and Seattle Repertory Theatre for one season each (1969-1970). He
debuted on Broadway, reprising his role in the original London stage version of
the hit musical "Grease," playing Danny Zuko. He also became one of the few
Americans ever to work with Britain's Young Vic Theater, with which he appeared
in “The Taming of the Shrew.” Gere subsequently appeared on television in the
drama Chelsea D.H.O. (1973, starring Frank Converse). Two years later, Gere made
his first appearance in a motion picture, with a small part in Milton Katselas's
adaptation of James Mills' novel, the crime drama Report to the Commissioner. He
followed it up with a more significant role in the made-for-TV movie Strike
Force (1975) and then in John D. Hancock's drama film Baby Blue Marine (1976,
starring Jan-Michael Vincent). He also returned on stage as part of the cast of
an off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard's “Killer's Head” (1975).
In 1977, Gere gathered attention for playing a supporting role in Richard
Brooks' screen version of Judith Rossner's novel, Looking for Mr. Goodbar. The
following year, he won his first leading role, opposite Brooke Adams, playing a
young couple pretending to be brother and sister, in writer-director Terrence
Malick's breathtaking Days of Heaven. He then starred in Robert Mulligan's drama
film, inspired by Richard Price's novel, Bloodbrothers (1978), playing Tony Lo
Bianco's son, and in John Schlesinger's romantic period drama Yanks (1979,
alongside Vanessa Redgrave). On the Broadway stage, Gere returned as a
homosexual inmate of Dachau, in Martin Sherman's "Bent," which won him a Theatre
World award.
Richard Gere’s acting career soared after he starred in writer-director Paul
Schrader's crime drama American Gigolo (1980, opposite Lauren Hutton) and Taylor
Hackford's romantic drama An Officer and a Gentleman (1982, opposite Debra
Winger). Gere was then seen as a streetwise male hustler, who has an affair with
a brilliant college student, in Jim McBride's drama film based on the 1959
French film by Godard, Breathless (1983, with Valérie Kaprisky) and as Dr.
Eduardo Plarr, an Anglo working in a Latin American country, in John Mackenzie's
adaptation of Graham Greene's novel, The Honorary Consul (1983, a.k.a. Beyond
the Limit, opposite Michael Caine). Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola also handed
him the lead role of Michael 'Dixie' Dwyer in the multiple tales of the loves
and lives of people who visited Harlem's legendary jazz joint, The Cotton Club
(1984, with Gregory Hines and Diane Lane), and Bruce Beresford's later gave him
the title role of Israel's king, King David (1985).
The rest of the 1980s saw Gere portraying an influential press consultant in
Sidney Lumet's Power (1986), a single-minded cop in Richard Pearce's No Mercy
(1986, alongside Kim Basinger) and playing Kevin Anderson's brother in Gary
Sinise's Miles from Home (1988). Entering the 1990s, Gere made his commercial
comeback with two starring roles, one in Mike Figgis' drama Internal Affairs
(opposite Andy Garcia), and another in Garry Marshall’s blockbuster romantic hit
Pretty Woman (opposite Julia Roberts).
Gere spent the next years executive-producing and starring in several films. He
was seen in Phil Joanou's psychological thriller Final Analysis (1992, played a
psychiatrist who falls in love with a patient's sister, costarring Kim Basinger),
Jon Amiel's Sommersby (1993, as a much-changed, war-torn Confederate soldier,
costarring Jodie Foster) and Mike Figgis' Mr. Jones (1993, played the title role
of a manic depressive man who falls in love with his therapist (Lena Olin). He
also earned an Emmy nomination for playing The Choreographer, a character
loosely based on Broadway director-choreographer Michael Bennett, in the HBO
movie And the Band Played On, inspired by the book by author Randy Shilts.
After acting in Intersection (1994) and First Knight (1995), Gere delivered a
strong turn as slick, hotshot lawyer Martin Vail, who defends a former altar boy
(Edward Norton) against allegations of murder, in Gregory Hoblit's adaptation of
William Diehl's novel, Primal Fear (1996), and as a savvy entertainment lawyer
who goes to China to broker a multi-million dollar television deal, in Jon
Avnet's high-stakes thriller The Red Corner (1997, alongside Bai Ling). He also
costarred with Bruce Willis, playing an imprisoned IRA sniper, in Michael Caton-Jones'
remake of Kenneth Ross' earlier screenplay, The Jackal (1997), and reunited with
Julia Roberts, playing a New York columnist who falls for his subject (Julia
Roberts), in Garry Marshall's romantic comedy Runaway Bride (1999).
Entering the new millennium, Gere became an aging playboy, who falls for
terminally ill Winona Ryder, in Joan Chen's romantic drama Autumn in New York,
played the title role of a wealthy Dallas gynecologist in Robert Altman's comedy
Dr T and the Women, and Diane Lane’s unsuspecting husband in Adrian Lyne's
Unfaithful. He also won Golden Globe and SAG awards for portraying Chicago's
slickest lawyer, Billy Flynn, in Rob Marshall's musical comedy based on Maurine
Dallas Watkins' hit Broadway play and Bob Fosse's book, Chicago (2002, with
Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones).
More recently, director Peter Chelsom hired Gere to star as bored, overworked
Estate Lawyer John Clark in his romantic comedy film, based on Masayuki Suo's
1997 screenplay, Shall We Dance (2004, with Jennifer Lopez and Susan Sarandon),
and filmmakers Scott McGehee and David Siegel offered him the role of Flora
Cross' withdrawn father, and Juliette Binoche's husband, in the family drama
film version of Myla Goldberg's novel, Bee Season (2005). Currently, Gere is
filming his upcoming films: Lasse Hallström's drama The Hoax (as Clifford
Irving, a bogus biographer of Howard Hughes) and Hong Kong director Wai Keung
Lau's first American film, the crime action The Flock (as a hyper-vigilant
federal agent tracking a missing girl abducted by a sex offender). He will also
star in Todd Haynes' re-enactment of the life of Bob Dylan, I'm Not There:
Suppositions on a Film Concerning Dylan (with Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett,
Adrien Brody, Colin Farrell, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Julianne Moore) and
Gregory Hoblit's adventure drama film, based on the life of the late adventure
photographer Bruno P. Zehnder, Emperor Zehnder (Gere will play the title role).
"It's the hairspray." Richard Gere (on the secret of his enduring popularity)
Awards:
