Richard Gere

Born

Richard Tiffany Gere , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Birthday

1949-08-31

Occupation

Actor

Spouse(s)

Cindy Crawford (1991–1995)
Carey Lowell (2002–2013) (separated) (1 child)

Years Active

1973–present

Richard Tiffany Gere (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.

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. 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.

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.

Gere experienced several box office failures after 1982, 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). 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 terrorist).

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, 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. His next film, the 2005 adapted novel Bee Season, was a commercial failure.

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 (making #74 on The Times Worst Films of 2008 list), but grossed over $84 million worldwide.

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

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