Richard Tiffany Gere ( , born August 31, 1949) is an
American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, and 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, and
Chicago, for which he won a
Golden Globe Award as Best Actor, as well as a
Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the Best Cast.
Early life
Born in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, Gere is a descendant of
Mayflower Pilgrims Francis Eaton,
John Billington,
George Soule,
Richard Warren,
Degory Priest,
William Brewster and
Francis Cooke.
Gere's mother, Doris Anna (
née Tiffany), was a homemaker, and his father, Homer George Gere, was an insurance agent for the
Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and had originally intended to become a
minister.
[Stated in interview on Inside the Actors Studio, 2002] Gere has three sisters and a brother. In 1967, he graduated from
North Syracuse Central High School, where he excelled at gymnastics and music, playing the
trumpet.
He attended the
University of Massachusetts Amherst on a gymnastics scholarship, majoring in
philosophy, but did not graduate, leaving after two years.
["Richard Gere Biography", Carey Latimore, The Biography Channel. Retrieved May 1, 2008.]
Career
Gere first worked professionally at the Provincetown Playhouse on Cape Cod in 1971 where he starred in
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Gere's 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, co-starring in the thriller
Looking For Mr. Goodbar (1977) and playing the leading role in director
Terrence Malick's well-reviewed 1978 film,
Days of Heaven.
In 1980, Gere appeared in the Broadway production of
Bent. His acting career took off that year with the film
American Gigolo, followed by the romantic drama
An Officer and a Gentleman, which grossed almost $130 million in 1982.
