Richard Gere

Richard Gere
Gere at the Montclair Film Festival, May 2015
Born	Richard Tiffany Gere (1949-08-31) August 31, 1949 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Nationality	American
Education	North Syracuse Central High School
Alma mater	University of Massachusetts Amherst
Occupation	Actor activist
Years active	1973–present
Religion	Tibetan Buddhist
Spouse(s)	Cindy Crawford (m. 1991; div. 1995) Carey Lowell (m. 2002; div. 2013)
Children	1

Richard Tiffany Gere^[1] (/ˈɡɪər/ GEER; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor and humanitarian activist. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol. He went on to star in several hit films, including An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, Primal Fear, Runaway Bride, Arbitrage and Chicago, for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and a Screen Actors Guild Award for part of the Best Cast.

Early life and education

Gere was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, Doris Ann (née Tiffany, 1924—2016),^[1] was a housewife. His father, Homer George Gere (1922—1999),^[1] was an insurance agent for the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, and had originally intended to become a minister.^[2] Gere is their eldest son and second child.^[1] His paternal great-grandfather had changed the spelling of the surname from "Geer".^[1] Both of his parents were Mayflower descendants; Gere's ancestors include Pilgrims Francis Eaton, John Billington, George Soule, Richard Warren, Degory Priest, Francis Cooke and William Brewster.^[1]

In 1967, Gere graduated from North Syracuse Central High School, where he excelled at gymnastics and music, playing the trumpet.^[2] He attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst on a gymnastics scholarship, majoring in philosophy, but did not graduate, leaving after two years.^[2][3]

Career

Gere first worked professionally at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and Provincetown Playhouse on Cape Cod in 1971, where he starred in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. His first major acting role was in the original London stage version of Grease in 1973.^[2] He 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 another star of the film, Sylvester Stallone. He played a small but memorable part in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and starred in the director Terrence Malick's well-reviewed 1978 film, Days of Heaven.^[2]

Gere was one of the first notable Hollywood actors to play a gay character, starring as a gay Holocaust victim in the 1979 Broadway production of Bent. Gere won a Theatre World Award for his performance. The 1980 film American Gigolo raised Gere's profile significantly, and the 1982 romantic drama An Officer and a Gentleman, with Debra Winger, grossed almost $130 million and cemented Gere's ascent to stardom.^[4]

Gere experienced several box office failures after 1982,^[5][6] but his career rebounded with the releases of Internal Affairs and Pretty Woman in 1990. He starred in several successful films throughout the 1990s, including Sommersby (1993), Primal Fear (1996) and Runaway Bride (1999) (which reunited him with his Pretty Woman co-star Julia Roberts).^[5] He also took a leading role in the 1997 action movie The Jackal, playing Declan Mulqueen (Gere used an Irish accent for his character, a former IRA militant.)

Gere was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1999. In 2002, he appeared in three major films, including The Mothman Prophecies, Unfaithful and the Academy Award-winning film version of Chicago,^[2] 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 that grossed $170 million worldwide.^[7] His next film, the 2005 adapted novel Bee Season, was a commercial failure.^[8]

By 2007, Gere was co-starring with Jesse Eisenberg and Terrence Howard in The Hunting Party a thriller in which he played a journalist in Bosnia, as well as with Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Cate Blanchett in Todd Haynes' semi-biographical film about Bob Dylan, I'm Not There.

In 2008, Gere co-starred with Diane Lane in the romantic drama Nights in Rodanthe. The film was widely panned by critics^[9] (making #74 on The Times Worst Films of 2008 list),^[10] but grossed over $84 million worldwide.^[11]

Later in his career, Gere was honored twice for his lifetime achievement. Regarding his 2012 performance in Arbitrage, Lou Lumenick of the New York Post said "Richard Gere gives the best performance of his career".^[12][13] He received an award from the 34th Cairo International Film Festival in December 2010.^[14]

Personal life and activism

Gere presented with a Khata by the 14th Dalai Lama, October 17, 2007

Gere had a relationship with actress Penelope Milford from 1971 to 1978.^[15] He had affairs with Priscilla Presley in 1983^[16] and Kim Basinger in 1986.^[17]

Gere was married to supermodel Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995. In November 2002, he married model and actress Carey Lowell.^[18] They have a son, Homer James Jigme Gere, who was born in February 2000 and is named after Gere's and Lowell's fathers, as well as the Tibetan name Jigme.^[2][19] In September 2013, the two separated after 11 years of marriage. The couple spent three years in highly contested divorce proceedings in Manhattan Supreme Court.^[20][21] The case was settled in October, 2016.^[22]

Gere was raised attending a Methodist church.^[23][24] His interest in Buddhism began when he was in his twenties.^[25] He first studied Zen Buddhism^[25] under Kyozan Joshu Sasaki.^[25] After having studied Zen for five or six years,^[25] in 1978 he traveled with the Brazilian painter Sylvia Martins^[26] to Nepal, where he met many Tibetan monks and lamas.^[26] He then met the 14th Dalai Lama in India^[25] and became a practicing Tibetan Buddhist of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism^[25] and an active supporter of the political figure of free Tibet movement Dalai Lama.^[2] Gere regularly visits Dharamsala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile.^[27]

Gere is also an advocate for human rights in Tibet. He is a co-founder of the Tibet House, 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, he is permanently banned from entering the People's Republic of China.^[28][29] In 1993, Gere was banned as an Academy Award presenter after he denounced the Chinese government in his capacity as presenter.^[30][31] In September 2007, Gere called for the boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to put pressure on China to make Tibet independent. He starred in a Free Tibet-themed Lancia commercial featuring the Lancia Delta.^[32] On June 27, 2011, Gere meditated in Borobudur Temple,^[33] in Indonesia.

Gere visits USAID HIV/AIDS "Operation Lighthouse" Project in Mumbai.

Gere actively supports Survival International, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights and lands of tribal peoples throughout the world.^[26] He contributed some of his writing for the book, We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009.^[34] Gere discussed the persecution and loss of land of the Jummas 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 humankind's own relationship with nature and capacity to survive.^[35] The royalties from the sale of the book go to the indigenous rights organization, Survival International.

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.^[36] 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 in that country. In 1999, he created the Gere Foundation India Trust to support a variety of humanitarian programs in India.^[37]

On April 15, 2007, Gere appeared at an AIDS awareness rally in Jaipur, India. 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.^[38]

In June 2008, Gere appeared in a Fiat commercial for the European market, driving a new Lancia Delta from Hollywood to Tibet. The commercial concluded with a tagline of "the power to be different". The commercial was reported in Chinese newspapers, and Fiat apologized to China.

In 2016, he endorsed Hillary Clinton for president and donated $2,700 to her campaign.^[39]

Honors and awards

In 1995 he was the President of the Jury at the 19th Moscow International Film Festival.^[40]

On May 17, 2012, Albanian President, Bamir Topi awarded the "Medal of Gratitude" to Richard 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".^[41] On February 16, 2012, George Eastman House International Museum for Photography and Film honored Gere with the George Eastman Award for distinguished contribution to the art of film.^[42]

Political views

Invasion of Iraq

In 2010, Gere stated that the decision to go to war in Iraq wasn't supported by the American people and that the administration at the time "bullied" Americans into the decision. He blamed the situation on a very "poor president".^[43]

"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," Gere said in a press conference held on the sidelines of the 34th Cairo International Film Festival.^[44]

Filmography

Gere in Venice, Italy in October 2007.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Richard Gere.

• Richard Gere at the Internet Movie Database
• Richard Gere at the Internet Broadway Database
  
• Richard Gere at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Hollywood star Richard Gere defends Indian N-tests (AFP) at the Wayback Machine (archived October 9, 1999) (23 May 1998)
• The Gere Foundation
• The Druk White Lotus School (external link) of which Gere is an Honorary Patron
• Melvin McLeod (1 May May 1999) Richard Gere: My Journey as a Buddhist