Richard Gere

Profile
Name: Richard Gere
Birth Name: Richard Tiffany Gere
Height: 5' 10 1/2''
Sex: M
Nationality: American
Birth Date: August 31, 1949
Birth Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Profession: actor, producer
Education: North Syracuse Central High School (graduated)
University of Massachusetts (dropped out)
Husband/Wife: Cindy Cawford (married on December 12, 1991; divorced in 1995)
Relationship: Carey Lowell (actress; 1995 until present), Penelope Milford (actress; together five years), Dawn Steel (executive; 1975-1978), Sylvia Martins (Brazillian painter)
Father: Homer Gere (insurance salesman)
Mother: Doris Gere
Son: Homer James Jigme (2000)
Claim to fame: as Tony Lopanto in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)

Biography
He was born Richard Tiffany Gere on August 31st, 1949 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father whose named Homer was an insurance salesman and her mother Doris was a house wife. Gere is the second child in the family, in which he has three sisters and one younger brother. In his teen he went to North Syracuse Central High School where he was proven to be a multi talented person. There Gere was active in the gym, lacrosse and sky teams. He also served on the school council and quite good in playing several music instruments, such as piano, guitar, bass and trumpet; and he even wrote a music for his high school production. Gere could at the end sucessfully graduate from North Syracuse Central High School in 1967.

Thereafter Gere continued his study onto University of Massachusetts in Amherst, majored in philosophy, where he had ever won a gymnastics scholarship. After two years learning, this-nowadays famous actor finally found much more interest in acting than in school that in 1973 he left the school and got a lead role in the London production of the rock musical "Grease." In the following years Gere performed in other plays, such as "Taming ...of the Shrew" and "American Gigolo," for which he played its major star role that gave him more fame in the year of 1980. Following Gere success was his another role in "An Officer and a Gentleman" played during 1982. Next, in 1990 he performed in a very famous blockbuster drama movie "Pretty Woman" co-strarring actress Julia Roberts. Despite his good look, Gere "cool and perfect" action also took part in granting the movie the People's Choice award for Best Movie.

Succeed in playing American Gigolo and Pretty Woman, Gere continued to act in "Runaway Bride" (1999) from which he got $12 million from the total $152 million earned by the box office.

Beyond his success in acting, Richard Gere wasn't succeed with his first marriage with Cindy Crawford whom he married on December 12th, 1991 and divorced in 1995. Seven years after the divorce, he married actress Carey Lowell, who later on gave born to his son Homer James Jigme Gere.

Not only the vegetarian Gere becomes the first man ever to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine, but also he is referenced in the 2001 hit song "Crying at the Discothéque" by Swedish dance group Alcazar. To add the two, he wins several awards as public appreciation of his done as well. It was Gere who won the People's Choice award for Best Movie and he was also picked by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1991. In 1999 he was listed as People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive and accomplished pianist and music writer for becoming the one who composed and performed the piano solo featured in Pretty Woman (1991).

Known as Mahatma Gandhi humanitarian admirer, Richard Gere, in recent January 2005, had confused many Palestinians due to his effort to participate in the country new president election to replace the late Yaser Arafat. By means of which, many Palestinians admitted to know nothing about the election, the candidates, nor did they need Americans to show them who to elect, for Americans themselves had chosen a "moron".

Filmography
2008 Nights in Rodanthe
2007 The Flock
2007 The Hoax
2007 I'm Not There: Suppositions on a Film Concerning Dylan
2007 Spring Break in Bosnia
2006 Heaven: Where is It? How Do We Get There?
2005 Emperor Zehnder
2005 Ending AIDS: The Search for a Vaccine
2005 Bee Season
2004 Shall We Dance?
2003 Return to Tibet
2003 Dreaming of Tibet
2002 Unfaithful
2002 Chicago
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: Out of Control
1998 AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies: Beyond The Law
1998 AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies: War and Peace
1998 AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies: Against The Grain
1997 The Jackal
1997 Red Corner
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 Beyond the Limit
1983 Breathless
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
Fighting for Freedom: Revolution & Civil War

Executive Producer
2005 Dreaming Lhasa
1993 Sommersby
1992 Final Analysis

Producer
1993 Mr. Jones

Songwriter
1990 Pretty Woman

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

National Board of Review
1997 Freedom of Expression Award Red Corner

Screen Actors Guild
2002 Best Actor Chicago

Trivia
* In April 2007, an arrest warrant was issued in India for Richard’s arrest, after he kissed actress Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS awareness event in New Delhi. By Indian law, the display was classed as an obscene act in a public place. The punishment for such a crime is imprisonment for three months, or a fine or both. Richard apologised for the on stage antics, a day after the arrest warrant was issued.
* In March/April 2007, Richard auctioned himself off for the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, a human rights organisation founded in 1968. The organisation aims to continue the legacy of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated. People can bid to have lunch with Richard in New York. As at March 21st, 2007, the current bit was $US13,500.
* Richard and his wife Carey Lowell currently live in Greenwich Village with their son and her daughter from a previous marriage.
* After countless rumors of their marriage being a sham and a cover-up for the both of them being homosexuals, both Richard and Cindy Crawford took out a full page ad in the London Times announcing that they were heterosexual, monogamous and in love.
* On December 12, 1991, he married supermodel Cindy Crawford in Las Vegas.
* In 2003, he won his first Golden Globe portraying Billy Flynn in the movie musical Chicago.
* He received a Golden Globe nomination in 1981 for his work in American Gigolo.
* He got his lead roles in American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentlemen and Chicago after they all were turned down by John Travolta.
* He fired his press agent after American Gigolo came out because he let People magazine have pictures of him without a shirt on after being told not to sell them.
* Richard is the co-founder of Tibet House which is an organization that is dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture.
* In 1973, Richard played Danny Zuko in the London production of Grease.
* His big Broadway breakthrough came with the rock opera Soon.
* In 1969, after only two years in college, he won a place with the prestigious Provincetown Players acting troupe and quit school to focus on acting full time.
* He attended the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and majored in philosophy.
* Richard can play the piano, bass, guitar, and trumpet. So perhaps it's only apt that he shares his birthday with teenage rock impresario Debbie Gibson. (Their age difference is 21 years).
* His first movie role was in the film Report for the Commissioner.
* He was the first man ever to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine.
* He trained for five months for the tap dance scene in the 2002 film Chicago.
* He actually composed and performed the piano solo he performs in the 1991 film, Pretty Woman.
* In 1999, he was voted People's Sexiest Man Alive.
* In 1967, Richard graduated from North Syracuse Central High School in Syracuse, NY.
* Richard is an Irish-American.
* For many years, Richard has been both a practicing Buddhist and a vegetarian.
* In 1980, Gere jumped to star status with the release of American Gigolo.