Richard Gere
ALL ABOUT RICHARD GERE
Full Name: Richard Tiffany Gere
Date of Birth: 31 August 1949
Place of Birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Spouse: Carey Lowell (9 November 2002 - present) 1 child
Cindy Crawford (12 December 1991 - 1995) (divorced)
Family: Father - Homer Gere (insurance salesman), Mother - Doris Gere, Son - Homer James Jigme (2000)
Salary: Unfaithful (2002) $15,000,000
The Mothman Prophecies (2002) $15,000,000
Runaway Bride (1999) $13,000,000
Relationships: Carey Lowell (actress; 1995 until present), Penelope Milford (actress; together five years), Dawn Steel (executive; 1975-1978), Sylvia Martins (Brazillian painter)
Bio:
Few actors have had such a topsy-turvy ride as Richard Gere. Not many have suffered such depressing doldrums, and almost none
have achieved such giddying heights. Somehow - by his looks, his grace, his charisma, his roles? - Gere became that most rare of
commodities, a bona fide Hollywood sex symbol. Not simply a flavour of the month phenomenon like DiCaprio, or a stunner like
Depp, but a character - like Louise Brooks or Rudolph Valentino - whose reputation was inextricably tied up with sex. It made him
world famous, yet this was a reputation that this highly intelligent actor actively and publicly despised, and he spent years struggling
against it, trying to be taken seriously as a rounded thespian. Hence the doldrums. And he came through, finally being seen as not
simply a classy performer capable of carrying both thrillers and rom-coms, but also, due to his ongoing pursuit of freedom for Tibet,
as a genuine humanitarian.
He was born Richard Tiffany Gere on the 31st of August, 1949, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the second of five, having three
sisters and a younger brother, all looked after by his housewife mother, Doris. His father, Homer, worked in insurance and, while
Richard was still young, moved the family to a farmhouse outside Syracuse, New York. In North Syracuse, Homer would run his own
agency.
Attending North Syracuse High School, Richard quickly proved to be multi-talented. Though not a jock, he was active in the gym,
lacrosse and ski teams. He served on the school council, and also excelled on the piano, guitar, bass and trumpet. Clearly gifted
musically, he even wrote music for High School productions.
Old school-friends have recalled that Richard was never on a mission to be popular, but was anyway. He hung around in jeans and
Army surplus jackets, and dated only the brightest girls (even then he valued brains over looks - how that sex symbol business must
have outraged him!). One girlfriend, Diane Fredricks, has said that Richard used to take her to the movies a lot, usually to see either
monster movies or old films. Already his interest in cinema had taken hold. And he had begun to act, having been approached to play
the lead in a production of The King And I - primarily because “he looked good with his shirt off”.
Graduating from High School in 1967, he won a gymnastics scholarship and enrolled at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst,
majoring in philosophy. After only two years though, he won a place with the prestigious Provincetown Players, and spent the summer
of ‘69 with them. Provincetown, then as now, was a racy artistic community on the end of Cape Cod, with a large gay population. And
Richard was wanted by pretty much everyone. Luckily, he had the personality and a budding talent to match his looks, and performed
well when handed the top roles.
couIt was a crazy time. His relationship with Milford was gleefully open, and there was a lot of drinking, as well as all the other
pleasures associated with youngsters in the early Seventies. His stage career went well, too. He took the title role in Long Time
Coming, Long Time Gone, and would later appear in two Sam Shepard productions, Back Bog Beast Bait and, with an outstanding
performance, in Killer’s Head. Before this, his Broadway breakthrough came with the rock opera Soon, and then the New York
production of the British farce Habeas Corpus.
Britain would, in fact, have a major part in Gere’s early success. On Broadway, he worked as the understudy to Barry Bostwick’s Danny
Zuko in Grease (the part John Travolta played in the movie). But when the production moved to London in 1973, it was Richard who
went as Zuko. Here he really shone and was invited to join the Young Vic Company for a season - very rare for an American - and
played in the likes of The Taming Of The Shrew. Gere had a great time, buying a motorbike and storming round London in black
leather. He’d bring the bike and the gear back to New York for another round of storming and wild partying.
But at some point the wildness had to stop. And this point came when Gere was thrown off his first movie, The Lords Of Flatbush, his
place being taken by a young Sylvester Stallone. Massively disappointed and badly shaken, Richard went to bed for three days. When
he reappeared, he was changed - still wild, but now more focused. He took up transcendental meditation and aimed at spiritual and
professional advancement.
Film roles quickly came his way. He played a pimp in Report To The Commissioner, a gritty, Serpico-style drama where an
undercover policewoman was killed by a fellow officer (co-stars would include Hector Elizondo and William Devane, both of whom
would appear with Gere again). Then there was Strike Force where Gere was state trooper Walter Spenser, teaming up with a New
York detective and an FBI agent to bust a drug ring. Then he was Raider in Baby Blue Marine, starring Jan-Michael Vincent and
Katherine Helmond (later Jessica Tate in the wonderful Soap).
And now came the breakthrough, with Looking For Mr Goodbar. Here Diane Keaton played a teacher of deaf kids who at night trawls
the bars of New York, seeking sex with strangers. Throughout, you have the doomed sense that she’ll find trouble - and, in a horrifying
climax, she does - but you can’t tell which of her men will provide it. They all might - the hypocritical copper, the sicko furniture
salesman, the suspect social worker and, of course, Richard. As a psycho swinger, he’s beautiful, predatory, slick and hugely
dangerous.
Next came Robert Mulligan’s Bloodbrothers, about a blue collar Bronx family, where Richard played the sensitive son who wants to
work with children rather than follow his folks into the construction industry. And then there was Days Of Heaven, directed by the
legendary Terrence Malick. Here Gere and Brooke Adams played a couple who flee poverty in Chicago and take off for the Texas
panhandle where, pretending to be brother and sister, they work for rich farmer Sam Shepard. He’s dying, but falls for Adams, and
she and Gere decide that she should marry him for the inheritance. And then he doesn’t die! It was a brilliant movie, a match for
Malick’s earlier Badlands, taking a panoramic view of America before the Great War, with all the characters enduring terrible
loneliness and seething with rage.
Now Gere turned to Britain once more, and joined William Devane in John Schlesinger’s Yanks, penned by Colin Welland (soon to
give his famous “The British are coming” speech at the Oscars when a winner for Chariots Of Fire). This involved American soldiers
billeted in England before D-Day, and their effect on the ladies. It was easy to see why Lisa Eichhorn’s Jean might fall for Gere’s
smooth, sweet Matt.
Suddenly, Gere’s life had changed. When he returned from filming Yanks he found that Looking For Mr Goodbar and Days Of Heaven
had made him a movie star. In itself, this was a good thing, but all the magazines were salivating over “sexy Richard Gere” and, as a
stage actor of some ten years experience, he did not take kindly to it. In one interview, when asked yet again about being a sex object,
he snapped “You want to see a sex object?”, and pulled out his penis.
He tried hard to build a different life for himself. Having parted company with Penelope Milford, he’d began another open relationship,
this time with Brazilian artist Sylvia Martins. Together they travelled extensively, first to Tibet, where Gere met up with lamas and
monks. Later, they’d be off to Honduras, Nicaragua and, while there was a war going on, El Salvador. They’d crash-land in a helicopter
on Bali, Richard then going off alone to meditate on a volcano. All of these experiences combined to increase Gere’s desire to help
others, particularly tribal peoples facing the theft of their land, or even extinction. Eventually, he would be co-founder of Tibet House, an
organisation dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture, and once headed by Uma Thurman’s father, Robert. He’d also become
involved with Survival International, aiding tribal peoples everywhere. Indeed, when opening the Harrods sale in 1994, he donated his
entire £50,000 fee to SI. “If people lose their land,” he once explained “they have nothing. You lose your land, you lose your culture, you
lose your self”.
With the onset of the Eighties came superstardom, and the most clear-cut example of Gere battling to control his public image. First
there was American Gigolo. Starring hot Richard (who’d stepped in for John Travolta) and promoted with the song Call Me by the even
hotter Blondie, it had its populist side. And, with Richard starring as a sexually expert escort who services older women and gets tied
up in a murder case, it was very controversial. So you can understand why the movie, a big hit, made Richard even more of a sex
symbol than he was. But there was another side to American Gigolo, a side that would have appealed to Gere the actor. Written and
directed by Paul Schrader - who’d penned Taxi Driver and Hardcore, and would later write Raging Bull and Affliction - this was not just
a sexy thriller. It was a study of the seamy and perverse Los Angeles underworld, of sex and dying in high society, Schrader yet again
revealing a world we do not ordinarily see. And the characters weren’t simply glamour-pusses. The movie was about displacement
and loneliness, about money and power and, considering Gere’s role, it was about narcissism, self-love and self-confidence.
And then there was Bent. With American Gigolo, Gere may have been playing with his sexy image, trying to subvert it by so over-stating
the case for his sexiness. But with Bent there could be no doubt that he was attacking that image with righteous fury. For Bent saw
him back on Broadway as a decadent, manipulative homosexual trying to survive in a concentration camp and finally choosing to die
rather than deny his true self. Richard was a sensation. Not only did he pick up a Theatre World Award, but he must have hoped
people would recognise the depths of both himself as an actor, and his latest movie, American Gigolo.
But it just got worse. Richard appeared bare-chested on the cover of People magazine, with banner headlines calling him “the
reluctant sex symbol” and America went potty for this new male totty. Gere couldn’t believe it. He sacked his press agent, who had
been ordered to with-hold the pictures. Unfortunately, the damage was done. In fact, an awful lot of damage was done during this
period. Seldom has an actor so suffered from being mistaken for his screen characters. For every woman that wanted the American
gigolo, ten men wanted to kick his head in. One disapproving trucker actually ran his car off the road. But male revenge does not
always manifest itself in physical violence. Often, the victim’s reputation is viciously shredded instead.
People were jealous, and Gere’s (despite his own protestations) was a famously sexual persona, so the attack was sexually based.
The rumour spread that Gere, apparently a closet homosexual and a decadent pervert, had wrapped a gerbil up in masking-tape and
slipped it into his anus, in the hope that its struggles to escape (I gotta get OUT of this shit-hole!) would be uniquely pleasurable. But
something went wrong. Maybe the masking-tape came loose, allowing the dying creature to tear at his innards with its pin-point
claws. Maybe he couldn’t get it out again, and infection set in. Whatever, the story went that Gere was forced to make a top secret visit
to LA’s Cedars-Sinai hospital to have it surgically removed.
It wasn’t true. Records showed that Gere had been on another spiritually-elevating trip to India when he was supposed to have been
in hospital. But the story did not go away. So strong was his image, so powerful was the hype, that people really thought he must be
some kind of sexual genius. It would be better for everyone - for the men who would never be like him, and the women who would
never have him - if he wasn’t heterosexual. And let’s not forget the people who thought that he was too damned convincing in Bent.
Incredibly, this story would plague him for twenty years. Luckily, though raised a Methodist, he’d be a Buddhist throughout - the
discipline and patience he learned must surely have helped.
Good press, bad press, it was all grist to the mill. And Richard’s next movie was a REALLY big hit. In An Officer And A Gentleman he
was Zack Mayo (ANOTHER part turned down by Travolta), a young man from the wrong side of the tracks who, despite his violent and
dismissive father (Robert Loggia), decides to attend Navy Officer Candidate School. Here, whipped into shape by Oscar-winning
Louis Gossett Jr (”You eye-ballin’ me, boy?”), he falls for factory worker Debra Winger, passes the course and everyone throws their
hats in the air. Like American Gigolo, the movie was a great deal more gritty than your standard romance, but once more Gere, who
received a Golden Globe nomination for his pains, was seen as Loverboy Number One.
From now on, when he wasn’t travelling or working for charity, Gere made a mighty effort to achieve professional respect. In
Breathless, a remake of Jean-Luc Godard’s debut A Bout De Souffle, he played Jesse Lujack, a car thief, killer and all-round
desperado, who goes on the run with sweet young French girl Valerie Kaprisky. Deliberately, it was a major departure for Richard.
Before, it was his stillness onscreen that captivated, the way he allowed you to watch his mind working. Lujack, though, was a
live-wire, loud-mouthed and funky, strutting and preening, his lust for life overflowing. Gere was excellent. Sadly, the film was not a
success. Neither was his next effort, The Honorary Consul, written by Graham Greene and concerning a dark love triangle in South
America.
But Gere was still a huge star, scoring leads in the biggest productions. Next came Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club,
concerning the Harlem nightspot of the 20s and 30s. Here Richard played Dixie Dwyer, a cornet player who saves the life of gangster
Dutch Schultz (James Remar) and is employed to look after Schultz’s girlfriend (Diane Lane - 18 years later to co-star as Gere’s
straying wife in Unfaithful). Love trouble, of course, ensues, with complications added by Dwyer’s nutty brother, played by Nicolas
Cage. Drawing on his musical experience from High School, Gere both played and sang.
It was another flop. But it didn’t crash as badly as Richard’s next movie, King David. This was a Biblical epic, directed by Bruce
Beresford (Tender Mercies, Breaker Morant), with Richard as the titular monarch dealing with Saul, Goliath and Bathsheba (played by
the wonderful Alice Krige). Strong support came from Brit thesps like Edward Woodward and Cherie Lunghi, but audiences were not
drawn to this slow re-telling of ancient stories, particularly not as sexy Richard was hidden by a beard AND indulging in weird dancing.
So purposefully assaulting that public image, he was struggling to find a balance between artistic and commercial success.
The mid-Eighties saw him slowly slip away into small productions. First came No Mercy, a tough action thriller where Gere played a
maverick cop hunted through New Orleans, along with Kim Basinger. Then he was a political consultant drawn into all manner of
shadiness in Sidney Lumet’s moody, uninvolving Power. And then he was back out in Days Of Heaven territory with Miles From Home
as one of two brothers who burn their farm rather than lose it to the bank and then go on the run. John Malkovich featured, as he
would in actor-director Gary Sinise’s next effort, Of Mice And Men.
Most reckoned that, by the end of the Eighties, Gere was finished. In fact, having rid himself of the “sex symbol” tag, he was pretty
much where he wanted to be. And then, suddenly, he was huge again. Success re-arrived as a double strike. First came Mike Figgis’s
brilliant Internal Affairs. As Dennis Peck, a ruthless renegade cop who runs all the scams and seduces most women he meets, he
was tremendous, like a murderous American gigolo-come-entrepreneur. But he was also completely believable, showing that Peck
has his own system of morals and responsibilities - indeed, he is OUTRAGED when the uptight and jealous Andy Garcia comes to
break up his party. And his quiet, Zen-like qualities truly suited a character so dominant, manipulative and on top of it all.
Internal Affairs secured Gere’s rep, but Pretty Woman made him an A-list star once more. Here he played a corporate breaker who
needs an escort for a week and hires fledgling hooker Julia Roberts. He teaches her sophistication, she teaches him to stop being a
greedy, life-ruining corporate pig-dog. It was thoroughly charming stuff with Richard shining as the cool smoothie gradually enchanted
by Roberts’ ungainly ebullience (he also wrote the piano piece he plays). Famously, it was an enormo-hit, sending Roberts into the
stratosphere and earning Gere, who’d been there and come back, a second Golden Globe nomination.
Life was looking good. His career was on the up, Tibet House was in motion, and he’d found love with the super-model Cindy
Crawford. After splitting from Sylvia Martins, Gere had had a relationship with fashion icon Tina Chow (later to die from AIDS-related
illness). Then, due to the machinations of Shirley Ritts, mother of Gere’s friend and photographer Herb, he’d met Crawford. It’s been
said that this love revitalised his career, but he nearly lost it. On December 12th, 1991, Crawford told long-term bachelor Gere that if
he didn’t marry her she’d leave. That same day, on a Disney jet arranged by Jerry Katzenberg, they flew to Las Vegas and were
married.
Now Richard began to alternate between small, “interesting” projects and bigger-budget productions. First came Rhapsody In
August, where four young Japanese kids become obsessed with the nuclear assault on Nagasaki, when visiting their grandmother
there. Richard popped up as her Eurasian nephew. It was a minor role, but it did allow him to work with director Akira Kurosawa. Then
came Final Analysis, a superior psycho-thriller where Gere played a psychiatrist being used and abused by patient Uma Thurman
and her sultry sister (Basinger once again). After this was Sommersby, Gere’s second remake of a French hit, this time Le Retour De
Martin Guerre. Here he played a man returning home to his farm and wife Jodie Foster after the Civil War. But is he REALLY the
husband, or an imposter who’s learned everything about this place from the real fellow, now dead? And, being as it’s Richard Gere,
does Jodie care?
Co-incidentally, Gere’s next picture starred Nathalie Baye, who’d played Foster’s part in the original. This was And The Band Played
On, a controversial cable film concerning the discovery of and early fight against AIDS. Many stars made cameo appearances, Gere
appearing as a choreographer, but he stood out, receiving an Emmy nomination. Next came something of a pet project,Mr Jones,
which reunited Gere with Mike Figgis. Here he played a manic depressive who engages in a torrid affair with his psychiatrist, played
by Lena Olin.
It wasn’t that great. And neither were Richard’s next two movies. Intersection, a third remake of a French movie (Les Choses De La
Vie), saw him having to choose between his haughty partner (Sharon Stone) and his hot new lover, Lolita Davidovich. Then First
Knight saw him racing about as Sir Lancelot, rescuing and romancing Guinevere (Julia Ormond), much to the chagrin of Sean
Connery’s King Arthur. It really wasn’t good, and Richard’s decision to play Lancelot as a late 20th Century American gigolo, with
hindsight, seems flawed.
Life wasn’t that rosy. Richard had never been allowed to escape the rumours that sprang up after American Gigolo and, as Crawford
had suffered similar accusations, as a couple they were constantly under fire. The marriage, it was endlessly alleged, was a cover-up
for their homosexuality. Eventually, they actually took a full-page ad out in the Times, announcing that they were heterosexual,
monogamous and in love. A few months later, sadly, they split. Rumours flew that Crawford was seeing her ex, club owner Rande
Gerber, and that, while filming First Knight, Gere had been involved with 22-year-old British actress Laura Bailey (and then model
Elizabeth Nottoli). The British tabloids went crazy, but Gere took it bravely. Appearing at a gay/lesbian fundraiser in London in October,
1994, he said “You’ve all heard some rumours about me over the years. I guess this is the time to do it. My name is Richard Gere…
and I am a lesbian”.
1995 saw Gere and Crawford divorce. Then Primal Fear pulled his career together again. Here he was fine as a hot-shot lawyer
defending an altar-boy who’s whacked an archbishop. But as the defence continues, he first discovers that he can maybe save this
no-hoper, and then slowly realises that the no-hoper may actually be an evil genius. Richard did well to stay in the picture as Ed
Norton exploded in his Oscar-nominated debut.
Now came another pet project, Red Corner. Here he played Jack Moore, a US lawyer in Beijing to close a TV deal, who gets framed
for murder and forced to prove his innocence by a cruel and unyielding government. Still fighting for Tibetan freedom, this was a
chance to have a pop at the Chinese authorities, and Gere used it. He arranged a special premiere of the movie in Washington DC,
just before an official visit by Chinese president Jiang Zemin and, during the visit, addressed a pro-Tibetan rally outside the White
House.
Red Corner was not a smash, and neither was The Jackal, where Gere played an IRA prisoner who helps the FBI in their pursuit of
Bruce Willis’s super-assassin. It was odd to see the pair star together for, just as John Travolta’s refusals had allowed Gere to break
through, so Gere’s refusal of Die Hard had set up Willis for his first major hit.
Big money talks loud and, after many years of trying, Hollywood got Gere and Julia Roberts back together for Runaway Bride. Here
Richard played a reporter who’s assigned to the case of a woman who keeps leaving men at the altar. He makes mistakes in his
piece, gets fired and attempts to redeem himself by researching the story properly. And the charming inevitable ensues. Once more,
Hector Elizondo featured, having appeared in Gere’s movie debut, as well as American Gigolo and Pretty Woman.
Runaway Bride was yet another smash and, inevitably, Gere’s next two pictures weren’t. Autumn In New York, where he was an
ageing playboy who falls for a terminally ill Winona Ryder, was pretty sappy. Then there was Robert Altman’s Dr T And The Women
which was far more effective. Here Gere was well cast as a Dallas gynaecologist who knows everything about women’s bodies but
nothing about their minds, thus he can’t cope with his wife, Farrah Fawcett’s breakdown or the problems of his daughters, played by
Kate Hudson and Tara Reid.
Then, after a two year gap, Richard entered his most successful period since the early Eighties. In The Mothman Prophecies he
played a reporter who finds weird pictures drawn by his wife before she died. Two years later, he suddenly finds himself several
hundred miles from where he thought he was, weird stuff is going on, and other people are drawing those weird pix. It was an
excellent thriller and a surprise smash, as was Unfaithful, based AGAIN on a French hit, this time Claude Chabrol’s La Femme
Infidele. Here Richard reunited with Cotton Club co-star Diane Lane as a steady suburban couple whose world is thrown into utter
confusion when she embarks on an affair with sexy hunk Olivier Martinez. Directed by Adrian Lyne, it could have simply been Fatal
Attraction with the sexes reversed. Thankfully, it was far more interesting than that.
And then, as if turning full circle, Richard appeared in a musical, just as he had in his early years in New York and London. In
Chicago, he played Billy Flynn, the lawyer of two warring stage heroines (both of whom are secretly murderesses) - newcomer Renee
Zellweger and falling star Catherine Zeta- Jones. As their battle continues, his position becomes ever more confused and precarious.
So, with three successive hits, Richard Gere is back on top. And he’s a happy dad, too. First he found love with Carey Lowell, daughter
of a famous geologist and a woman as well-travelled as himself. She was also a well-known fashion model, then a TV star in Law
And Order and A League Of Their Own, as well as winning small roles in Sleepless In Seattle and Leaving Las Vegas. Having fallen
for each other, in February 2000 they had a son, Homer James Jigme - Jigme being Tibetan for “fearless” and married in secret in
2002. The family live in considerable luxury, Gere having earned $13 million for Runaway Bride and $15 million each
for Unfaithful and The Mothman Prophecies.
That said, Richard Gere would be just as happy in a mud-hut (and often is). Like his friend, the Dalai Lama, he’s
that kid of guy.
Source: www.richard-gere.us
Trivia:
Was honored for his continuing humanitarian efforts with the Marian Anderson Award. (November 12, 2007)
Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty has been arrested at Mumbai airport in the continuing storm surrounding her public clinch with Richard Gere at an Aids-awareness event earlier this year. (September 27, 2007)
Is urging people to boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympic, in order to put pressure on China to give independence to Tibet. (September 4, 2007)
India’s Supreme Court temporarily suspended an arrest warrant for Gere, who was wanted for allegedly breaking public obscenity laws by kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty - until it decides on the proper jurisdiction for the case. (May 17, 2007)
Indian actress Shilpa Shetty says he has been calling her twice a day to make sure she is coping with the scandal surrounding their public kiss. (May 10, 2007)
Tried to quell the storm over a public kiss he gave a Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS awareness event in India, apologizing for any offense. (April 27, 2007)
His repeated kisses on the cheeks of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in an event to promote AIDS awareness sparked protests in India with demonstrators burning effigies of the actor. (April 16, 2007)
His plans to open a luxury country hotel in Bedford, New York have come to a grinding halt after he failed to get town approval for his project due to the lack of handicap access. (July 11, 2006)
Is 2006 recipient of the annual Hasty Pudding awards.
In preparation for his role in THE FLOCK, he spent about four hours with Bernalillo County deputies going door to door to check on registered sex offenders. (November 15, 2005)
A photo opportunity with Japan’s prime minister turned into an impromptu ballroom dance session after he asked Gere, “Shall We Dance?” – the actor’s latest movie. (March 30, 2005)
Has urged the European Union (EU) to rethink its plan to lift an arms embargo against China. (March 29, 2005)
Gere and Julia Roberts were voted the third greatest on-screen couple of all time in a poll commissioned by British chain store Woolworths for their work in PRETTY WOMAN (1990).
Recorded a TV commercial urging Palestinians to vote in their election to pick a successor to veteran leader Yasser Arafat, who died in November 2004. (2005)
Broke a hand after a horse-riding accident. (2004)
Quotes:
“All of our energy should be in sacrifice and services. Suffering, at least.”
“Billions of people don’t practice a religion at all.”
“Certainly there have been better actors than me who have had no careers. Why? I don’t know.”
“Even in comedies, you’ve got to feel safe for things to just happen in a way that is natural and free, and recognizable as human.”
“Everyone responds to kindness.”
“I can’t say I have control over my emotions; I don’t know my mind. I’m lost like everyone else. I’m certainly not a leader.”
“I cry every chance I get.”
“I do think that good actors can do any part. It doesn’t mean that they are the best ones to do it.”
“I don’t know any of us who are in relationships that are totally honest - it doesn’t exist.”
“I don’t think that bravery is about skin. Bravery is about a willingness to show emotional need.”
“I’m a 50 year-old guy and I’m not in shape like I was when I was 30.”
“I’m less needy about needing to express myself through acting. I have many different lives outside of this that are extremely fulfilling.”
“I’m not that tough; I’m not that smart. I need life telling me who I am, showing me my mind constantly. I wouldn’t see it in a cave.”
“I’m voting for Gore because the other is unthinkable. Which most of us will probably do. I hope all of us. I’ve always liked Ralph Nader and would like to see a real third party, but the thought of George Bush as president is unthinkable.”
“If the work is going well and it’s something that has value with some meaning to it, it gives back a lot.”
“In a way, one gets stability from being able to order the rational mind.”
“In saving Tibet, you save the possibility that we are all brothers, sisters.”
“Maybe the Dalai Lama is the only person who is totally honest, and even with him, he’s skillful not to hurt anybody. He’s skillful.”
“Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality.”
“My first encounter with Buddhist dharma would be in my early 20s. Like most young men, I was not particularly happy.”
“The Dalai Lama said that he thinks mother’s love is the best symbol for love and compassion, because it is totally disinterested.”
“The secret of my success is my hairspray.”
“There is nothing real about film. Nothing. Even the light particles that project the film can’t be proven to exist. Nothing is there.”
“There’s really one character for every actor. The voyage is to find that one character.”
“Tibetan Buddhism had an enormous impact on me.”
“Western Buddhists in many ways are much serious Buddhists than Tibetans are.”
“What we all have in common is an appreciation of kindness and compassion; all the religions have this. We all lean towards love”
“When His Holiness won the Nobel Peace Prize, there was a quantum leap. He is not seen as solely a Tibetan anymore; he belongs to the world”
“When I started acting, it was really the way for me to be able to communicate.”
“When someone has a strong intuitive connection, Buddhism suggests that it’s because of karma, some past connection.”
“When you work as an actor, you’ve got to feel safe even in what appears to be the simplest things.”
Filmography:
Richard Gere Filmography as an Actor:
2009 The Prodigy
2009 Brooklyn’s Finest
2009 Amelia
2008 Hachiko: A Dog’s Story
2008 Nights In Rodanthe
2007 I’m Not There
2007 The Hunting Party
2007 The Flock
2007 The Hoax
2006 Heaven: Where is It? How Do We Get There?
2005 Ending AIDS: The Search for a Vaccine
2005 Bee Season
2004 Shall We Dance?
2003 Dreaming of Tibet
2003 Return to Tibet
2002 Chicago
2002 Fighting for Freedom: Revolution & Civil War
2002 Unfaithful
2002 The Mothman Prophecies
2001 The Concert For New York City
2000 Autumn in New York
2000 Dr. T & The Women
1999 Runaway Bride
1998 AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies: Beyond The Law
1998 AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies: Out of Control
1998 AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies: Against The Grain
1998 AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies: War and Peace
1997 Red Corner
1997 The Jackal
1996 Primal Fear
1995 First Knight
1994 Shadow Over Tibet: Stories In Exile
1994 Intersection
1993 Sommersby
1993 And the Band Played On
1993 Mr. Jones
1992 Final Analysis
1991 Rhapsody in August
1991 Lung Ta: The Forgotten Tibet
1990 Pretty Woman
1990 Internal Affairs
1988 Miles From Home
1986 Power
1986 No Mercy
1985 King David
1984 The Cotton Club
1983 Breathless
1983 Beyond the Limit
1982 An Officer and a Gentleman
1979 American Gigolo
1979 Yanks
1978 Days of Heaven
1977 Blood Brothers
1977 Looking for Mr. Goodbar
1976 Baby Blue Marine
1975 Strike Force
1974 Report to the Commissioner
Richard Gere Filmography as an Executive Producer:
2005 Dreaming Lhasa
1993 Sommersby
1992 Final Analysis
Richard Gere Filmography as a Producer:
2008 Hachiko: A Dog’s Story
1993 Mr. Jones
Richard Gere Filmography as a Songwriter:
1990 Pretty Woman
Richard Gere Awards:
Golden Globe
2002 Best Actor - Musical or Comedy Chicago
1990 Best Actor - Musical or Comedy Pretty Woman
1982 Best Actor - Drama Officer and A Gentleman
Golden Satellite Award
2007 Best Actor - Comedy or Musical The Hoax
Independent Spirit Award
2007 Robert Altman Award I’m Not There
National Board of Review
1997 Freedom of Expression Award Red Corner
Screen Actors Guild
2002 Best Actor Chicago
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