Richard Gere
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Notes
Gere wrote the introductions for "Ocean of Wisdom," a compilation of the Dalai Lama's teachings, and "Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet," the catalog for a major traveling exhibition organized by Tibet House.
"I had very long hair, which I refused to cut... When I first came to the city, to New York, it came down to my tits. I looked like Rita Hayworth."---Gere on his arrival in NYC in the late 1960s, quoted in "Gere-ing Up" by Matthew Rolston, FAME, December 1989/January 1990.
Biography
Long recognized as one of Hollywood's most bankable leading men, actor Richard Gere was at times almost as widely known for his brief marriage to supermodel Cindy Crawford, as well as his spiritual convictions to Buddhism and political support of the region of Tibet. Emerging as an up-and-coming talent both on and off-Broadway, Gere soon garnered attention for roles in films like "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" (1977) and Terence Malick's "Days of Heaven" (1978). A career-making turn as the titular "American Gigolo" (1980) made him an instant sex symbol, while his magnetic performance as "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982) solidified his reputation as a top leading man. However, a series of box office disappointments followed, until his turn as a modern day Prince Charming opposite Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman" (1990) once again made the actor a hot commodity. While offerings like the legal thriller "Primal Fear" (1996) met with modest success, Gere returned to his Broadway musical roots to reinvent himself onscreen for the Academy Award-winning film adaptation of "Chicago" (2002), which earned him a Golden Globe. Although he continued to work steadily over the following decade, it wasn't until the harrowing drama "Arbitrage" (2012) that Gere once again found himself on the receiving end of unanimous critical praise. He later made his first move to TV by starring in the British series "MotherFatherSon" (BBC 2018). Over a career that experienced its fair share of highs and lows, Gere remained a consistent film presence, frequently surprising audiences with new levels of craft and charm.
Gere was born on Aug. 31, 1949 in Philadelphia, PA, but grew up in upstate New York where his father, Homer, sold insurance and his mother, Doris, worked as a homemaker. Finding his way to the University of Massachusetts on a gymnastics scholarship, Gere studied philosophy and drama, only to drop out after two years to pursue acting. Gere spent a season each with the Provincetown Playhouse and Seattle Repertory Company before settling in NYC, where he eventually starred on Broadway as Danny Zuko in "Grease" (1973). He continued to work in theater while securing his first film parts, making his debut in "Report to the Commissioner" (1975), before finally gaining notice as Diane Keaton's hustler beau in "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" (1977). He landed his first leads in two films released a week apart in the fall of 1978: Terrence Malick's lyrical "Days of Heaven" and Robert Mulligan's urban working class family drama "Bloodbrothers." Stardom came two years later with "American Gigolo" (1980), Paul Schrader's ambitious updating of Robert Bresson's film "Pickpocket" (1959) to a contemporary Californian milieu. Playing a cocky prostitute, decked out in Armani suits and driving a fancy car, Gere's character became not only a fashion statement but a symbol for the Reagan years about to come.
Gere enjoyed his greatest commercial success of the 1980s with "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982), a surprisingly old-fashioned military romance pairing him with Debra Winger, a co-star with whom he famously fought with off camera. Despite the on-set rancor between the two leads, it did provide combustible chemistry onscreen, culminating with one of filmdom's most famous scenes: Gere carrying Winger out of the factory, to the tune of "Up Where We Belong." It had taken a mere five years to reach the top, but he would have little time to savor the altitude. Miscast as a British doctor who becomes involved with South American revolutionaries in "Beyond the Limit" (1983), an adaptation of Graham Greene's The Honorary Consul, Gere fared no better as an amoral punk in "Breathless" (1983), as his non-stop scenery-chewing and trouser-dropping began growing tiresome at that time. Meanwhile, "The Cotton Club" (1984) proved disastrous from the word go, and a lack of screen chemistry between Gere and sexy co-star Kim Basinger doomed the mindless melodrama "No Mercy" (1986). He turned down blockbusters like "Wall Street" (1987) and "Die Hard" (1988), but his risk-taking - which had paid off with critical raves for his starring turn as a homosexual Holocaust victim in Broadway's "Bent" (1979) - backfired in failures like "King David" (1985) and "Miles from Home" (1988). In just a few short years, Gere suffered a string of failed movies, casting a spotlight on his early promise now unfulfilled.
But it took only two years before he reasserted his position as a bankable star with two change-of-pace roles. First, he painted a chilling portrait of corruption and misogyny with his portrayal of rogue cop Dennis Peck in Mike Figgis' sophisticated thriller "Internal Affairs" (1990), a film which returned him to the homoeroticism of "An American Gigolo." He followed with the huge box-office success "Pretty Woman," which allowed him to display a heretofore untapped Cary Grant-like comedic sensibility. There was also no lack of screen chemistry with co-star Julia Roberts; two beautiful people who allowed each other to shine in this updated take on "Cinderella." Gere went on to play a Eurasian who visits his Japanese relatives in Nagasaki in Akira Kurosawa's well-intentioned "Rhapsody in August" (1991) before making his executive producing debut with the psychological thriller, "Final Analysis;" a duty he also performed for "Sommersby" and "Mr. Jones" (both 1993). With the exception of "Sommersby," which co-starred Jodie Foster, Gere was mired in feature failures throughout the early 90s, but his small role as a gay choreographer helped launch HBO's "And the Band Played On" (1993), earning him an Emmy nomination.
After the embarrassment of his contemporary American-sounding Lancelot in yet another telling of the Camelot story, "First Knight" (1995), Gere returned to form as a cocky attorney defending accused killer Edward Norton in "Primal Fear" (1996). The courtroom thriller "Red Corner" (1997) addressed something close to his heart: the oppressive Chinese regime which had persecuted his beloved Tibet since 1949. Featuring an all-Chinese cast, whose involvement placed their families back home in danger, "Red Corner" told the story of an American entertainment lawyer (Gere) railroaded by a brutal, arcane judicial system. He followed quickly that same year with "The Jackal," playing a former IRA commando hunting a noted terrorist (Bruce Willis) in this loose remake of Fred Zinneman's "The Day of the Jackal" (1973). Meanwhile, Gere's continued promotion of Tibetan Buddhism and its spiritual leader while raising awareness of Chinese repression of the Tibetan culture made him the Hollywood "point man" for high-profile appearances and fundraisers involving the Dalai Lama.
Gere continued to act steadily in movies, though for a stretch his films were less than remarkable. He re-teamed with his "Pretty Woman" co-star Julia Roberts and director Garry Marshall for "Runaway Bride" (1999), a sort-of-sequel-in-spirit, in which he played a journalist investigating the story of a woman who has backed out of several marriages at the altar. The film did well enough at the box office, but the excitement was nowhere near the original Gere/Roberts/Marshall teaming. Worse was the May-December romantic tearjerker, "Autumn in New York" (2000), in which both he and Winona Ryder were seriously miscast against one another in a soggy "dying-girl-finds-love" melodrama. Gere fared much better under the direction of Robert Altman in the seriocomic "Dr. T and the Women" (2000), playing a handsome gynecologist who seems beset by the many demanding women in his life, including his wife, daughters, office staff and patients. Gere was perfectly believable as a man who lures females into his orbit, yet fails to understand what drives them; nevertheless, it was one of Altman's entertaining but trifling efforts and never lured a large audience.
In 2002, Gere starred in "The Mothman Prophecies," a horror thriller pairing him with Laura Linney that disappeared from theaters with nary a ripple. His next project, "Unfaithful" (2002), brought Gere back to the fore, playing the loving, attentive and dashing husband whose beautiful wife (Diane Lane) nevertheless cheats on him with a sensual Frenchman (Olivier Martinez). The film offered one of the best, most measured performances of the actor's career, particularly when the truth is finally revealed to him. Gere next got to display his oft-ignored musical talents in the much-anticipated movie version of the musical "Chicago" (2002), playing the slick huckster of a lawyer Billy Flynn, in a role that earned him several award wins, including a Golden Globe for Best Actor - Musical or Comedy. Around this same time, he married his companion of seven years and the mother of his son, actress Carey Lowell. His previous marriage to supermodel Cindy Crawford, while perfect fodder for the tabloids, what with the natural beauty of both on full display, had shockingly ended in 1994 after the couple had been together since 1988.
Now in his mid-fifties, Gere still cut a dashing enough figure to be believably paired opposite Jennifer Lopez for the romantic comedy, "Shall We Dance?" (2004), playing a family man who becomes obsessed with reigniting the passion inside Lopez's chilly dance instructor, while simultaneously discovering the joy of dance himself. He then received mixed reviews for his role in "Bee Season" (2005), playing Saul Naumann, a family man previously distracted by his religious studies of the traditional cabala who bonds with his daughter (Flora Cross) when she becomes a champion speller. Though many critics admired the film and the performance, some took Gere to task for not convincingly portraying the character's intellectual inner life, as well as not making a convincing Hebrew due to his WASP-y looks and his famous Buddhist beliefs.
The actor made yet another return to form with his next film, "Hoax" (2007), the true story of faux Howard Hughes biographer Clifford Irving (Gere). In 1970, Irving claimed he had permission to be the biographer of the reclusive and enigmatic Hughes, landing a six-figure advance from publisher McGraw-Hill. Irving later handed the publisher a finished manuscript, which was eventually snuffed out by journalists, and later Hughes himself, as being fraudulent. Gere was persuasive as Irving, a performance that earned the actor critical kudos. Meanwhile, Gere made headlines around the world in April 2007, after an incident involving Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS awareness event in New Delhi. In an impromptu moment, Gere embraced an unsuspecting Shetty, then bent her backwards while profusely kissing her. "The Kiss," as it was henceforth called, ignited fury across India, with groups of men burning and kicking effigies of Gere in public. Even a judge from the northwestern city of Jaipur issued an arrest warrant for both stars for violating obscenity laws. While Gere apologized as profusely as he had kissed Shetty, the actress expressed concern that her countrymen were overreacting. The arrest warrant was later rescinded after the furor died down.
Largely overshadowed by the recent controversy was Gere's appearance with Claire Danes as a Public Safety agent obsessed with locating a kidnapped girl in the grim mystery "The Flock" (2007). The first English language film directed by noted Hong Kong director Andrew Lau, it was given a wide theatrical run internationally, although it would only be released on DVD the following year in the U.S. Capping off an exceptionally busy year, he also appeared as one of several different metaphorical variations of Bob Dylan in the experimental biopic "I'm Not There" (2007), co-starring Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett as other interpretations of the folk-rock legend. The following year saw the always dependable leading man in familiar territory opposite Diane Lane in an adaptation of novelist Nicholas Sparks' romance "Nights in Rodanthe" (2008) prior to taking on the role of George Putnam, husband of America's most famous pioneering aviatrix (Hilary Swank) in the historical biopic "Amelia" (2009). Another effort that performed reasonably well overseas, yet only saw a DVD release stateside, was "Hachi" (2009), a based-on-fact inspirational drama about a young Akita puppy who forms an unbreakable bond with an American professor (Gere) after being abandoned at a train station.
Gere next starred alongside Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke and Wesley Snipes in director Antoine Fuqua's gritty police drama "Brooklyn's Finest" (2010) as a cynical cop facing a crisis of conscience in the weeks leading up to his retirement. Unfortunately, while Gere and his co-stars earned high marks for their work, the majority of critics felt Fuqua and writer Michael C. Martin delivered little more than genre clichés and a bloody climax. After a co-starring turn alongside Topher Grace in the unremarkable spy thriller "The Double" (2011), Gere delivered what many pundits considered to be among his very best in the character drama "Arbitrage" (2012). Cast as a hedge fund billionaire whose professional and personal worlds begin to crumble around him as he attempts to cover up a fatal accident, Gere brought to life a man of fascinating contradictions nearing the end of his rope with intensity and believability. He received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor for his work in the film. After co-starring in the drama "Time Out of Mind" (2014), Gere joined the cast of John Madden's whimsical romantic comedy sequel "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" (2015). After starring in the little-seen drama "The Benefactor" (2015), Gere starred in the Israeli political drama "Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer" (2016), thriller "The Dinner" (2017) and drama "Three Christs" (2017) before making his TV debut in the British drama "MotherFatherSon" (BBC 2018).
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Music (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Life Events
1969
Spent one season each at Provincetown Playhouse and Seattle Repertory Theatre
1973
Made Broadway debut as Danny Zuko in the hit musical "Grease"; recreated role for London production
1975
Made film acting debut in "Report to the Commissioner"
1977
Garnered attention for a supporting role in "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" opposite Diane Keaton
1978
Had first leading role in a feature, "Days of Heaven"
1979
Returned to Broadway in "Bent," playing homosexual inmate of Dachau
1982
Starred in his greatest commercial success of the decade, "An Officer and a Gentleman"
1990
Made a commercial comeback with starring role in Garry Marshall's "Pretty Woman" opposite Julia Roberts
1992
First film as executive producer, "Final Analysis"; also starred
1993
Executive produced and starred in Mike Figgis' "Mr Jones" and period drama "Sommersby"
1993
Appeared as a character loosely based on Broadway director-choreographer Michael Bennett in the HBO film "And the Band Played On"; earned Emmy nomination
1996
Delivered solid performance as a cocky attorney defending former altar boy Edward Norton against allegations of murder in "Primal Fear"
1997
Starred in Jon Avnet's "Red Corner," a project particularly close to his heart for its attack on the repressive Chinese regime
1999
Re-teamed with Julia Roberts and director Garry Marshall for the romantic comedy "Runaway Bride"
2000
Starred in Robert Altman's "Dr. T and the Women"
2000
Co-starred with Winona Ryder in "Autumn in New York," directed by Joan Chen
2002
Cast in singing and dancing role as sleazy lawyer Billy Flynn in film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical "Chicago"; received a SAG nomination for Best Actor
2002
Cast opposite Diane Lane as an unsuspecting husband whose wife is having an affair in "Unfaithful"
2004
Co-starred with Jennifer Lopez and Susan Sarandon in U.S. remake of "Shall We Dance?"
2005
Starred with Juliette Binoche in the family drama "Bee Season," based on the Myla Goldberg novel
2006
Starred in Andrew Lau's first American film "The Flock"
2007
Portrayed Clifford Irving, a bogus biographer of Howard Hughes in Lasse Hallström's "The Hoax"
2007
Portrayed Bob Dylan at one distinct stage of his life in Todd Haynes directed "I'm Not There."
2007
Played a discredited journalist embarking on an unauthorized mission to find a war criminal in "The Hunting Party"
2008
Re-teamed with Diane Lane for "Nights in Rodanthe," based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks
2009
Portrayed George P. Putnam, Earhart's husband (Hilary Swank) in Mira Nair's biopic "Amelia"
2010
Cast as a veteran cop in Antoine Fuqua's "Brooklyn's Finest"
2010
Co-directed historical documentary "Yankeeland: In the Shadow of the Stadium"
2012
Starred in financial thriller "Arbitrage" as a fraudulent hedge fund manager; re-teamed with Susan Sarandon as husband and wife in the film
2014
Co-starred in "Time Out of Mind"
2015
Starred in in Andrew Renzi's drama "The Benefactor"
2015
Joined cast of "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"
2017
Co-starred in mystery/thriller "The Dinner" alongside Laura Linney and Steve Coogan
2017
Co-starred with Peter Dinklage and Walton Goggins on "Three Christs"
2019
Made series debut as Max on "MotherFatherSon"
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Promo
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
Gere wrote the introductions for "Ocean of Wisdom," a compilation of the Dalai Lama's teachings, and "Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet," the catalog for a major traveling exhibition organized by Tibet House.
"I had very long hair, which I refused to cut... When I first came to the city, to New York, it came down to my tits. I looked like Rita Hayworth."---Gere on his arrival in NYC in the late 1960s, quoted in "Gere-ing Up" by Matthew Rolston, FAME, December 1989/January 1990.
"'It was difficult for Richard early on,' says designer Diane Von Firstenberg, who had a 'fairly little fling' with Gere after 'Gigolo'. 'In those days he was the person who was NOT John Travolta,' she says, referring to the syndrome that Gere was trapped in at the beginning of his career. In his three big early films, Gere inherited Travolta-discarded roles in 'Days of Heaven', 'American Gigolo', and 'An Officer and a Gentleman.'"---Kevin Sessums writing in VANITY FAIR, May 1990.
"... He's discovering the pleasures of being bad. Dennis Peck, Gere's role in 'Internal Affairs', is a breathtakingly nasty character. But the actor, his hair now Paul Newman grey [he claims the emotional stress of 'Bent', a play about the suffering of gays under the Nazis, turned it that way]. brings to the part the vestiges of his usual niceness, subtly delaying the onset of our distrust and our disgust. Peck, it emerges, is the kind of womanizer who despises women. Women are his targets, his prey and the currency in which he trades. His particular expertise is in sodomy, and he never takes his clothes off, not even his shirt. The contempt is palpable."---"Changing Gere" by John Morrish (in an unidentifiable British publication from 1990).
"Peck's real relationships are with men. The sex acts with women are, quite explicitly, demonstrations of power for the benefit of other men. Such tenderness as there is stays in the locker room. A more conventionally macho leading man (Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell were considered) might never have found this homoerotic note in the character. But lately Gere has been increasingly sanguine about the gay undercurrents often apparent in his movies. He can afford to be. At 41, with his career back on track, he's grown up enough to take parts, and to make films, that reflect the complexity of the whole man."---"Changing Gere" by John Morrish (in an unidentifiable British publication from 1990).
"I'm a special friend to the Tibetans, and it's a huge responsiblity. I've been talking about Tibet for 15 years. There wasn't anybody else who could help them get some attention, in the media sense. Certainly there was the Dalai Lama, but in the more everyday, mundane sense there was nobody. Thank God, there have been a lot more people coming forward recently. I'm like an elder statesman."---Gere in DAILY NEWS, October 27, 1997.
"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 to LOS ANGELES TIMES, November 10, 1997.
"I didn't think 'Chicago' was that great when I went to see it on Broadway," he says. "I just didn't know how you could make a movie out of it... But my agent believed in it enormously and he sent me the script, and it was absolutely brilliant. It ended up being probably the best experience of my life."---Gere as quoted in Biography, Summer 2004.
