Richard Gere Biography all about Richard

Richard Gere Biography

Fast Facts

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 31, 1949.

Richard grew up in a musical family and became quite proficient on the piano, guitar and the trumpet.

Richard Gere excelled in gymnastics as a young person

He first joined a musicians commune in rural Vermont, but before too long he headed to New York City, re-committing to his career as an actor. His first significant on-stage triumphs included such productions as Taming of the Shrew and the more modern Grease.

Richard hit the big-screen jackpot when in "American Gigilo", he portrayed Julian Kay and overnight he became America's newest heartthrob.

He met the Dalai Lama in the early eighties and decided to commit himself to the cause of the Tibetan people.

r A&E's Richard Gere Biography Video

Unforgettable clips and intimate interviews highlight this feature-length look at the actor who has captivated audiences for 25 years.

Richard Gere Biography

"Social commitment deepens spiritual commitment and the other way around. The only way the planet can save itself is by involving itself. We are saving ourselves by saving Tibet." Richard Gere

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 31, 1949, Richard grew up in a musical family and became quite proficient on the piano, guitar and the trumpet. He attended the University of Massachusetts majoring in Philosophy which is not a surprise considering his passionate interest in Eastern thought and religion.

After two years of study, he dropped out and drifted east to Cape Cod where he landed employment as a member in the Provincetown Playhouse. He played leads in The Great God Brown, Camino Real, The Collection, Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead, as well as other dramas. When the season ended he went west to Seattle to perform a brief stint with the Seattle Repertory Theatre.

Going back to the east he joined a musicians commune in rural Vermont, but before too long he headed to New York City, re-committing to his career as an actor. His first significant on-stage triumphs included such productions as Taming of the Shrew and the more modern Grease. This breakthrough actually happened while he was in London in the early 1970's.

A few years later he returned to New York to continue his portrayal of street punk Danny Zuko in the Broadway production of Grease. He did really well in New York with talented performances in such stage productions as Sam Shepard's one-act play "Killer's Head" ( in which he played the character of a death-row convict strapped and blindfolded in an electric chair ) and the British sex farce "Habeas Corpus", as well as Shakespeare productions.

But, he was becoming unhappy with stage work and deciding that movies could tell a story and convey the emotions of that story better than the play acted out on stage could and with this belief he began looking for work in Hollywood. His first film role was a small part as a two-bit pimp in "Report to the Commissioner"...he did well enough in this film to land a part playing the character of a soldier in a WW2 drama "Baby Blue Marine".

Next came "Looking For Mr. Goodbar" with Diane Keaton, Yanks with Vanessa Redgrave among others, but in 1980 Richard hit the big-screen jackpot when in "American Gigilo", he portrayed Julian Kay, a male prostitute who did a good job of satisfying a long list of wealthy female clients. Female movie-goers went wild over Gere's sexy, exotically rich image portrayed in this movie and he subsequently became a star overnight!

It may have been tempting for him to take a ride on this wave of 'movie star' adulation as many actors would have, but Richard turned around and played a gay Holocaust victim in Martin Sherman's "Bent". Because Richard has been willing to play homosexual characters he has been accused of being gay, which he refuses to confirm or deny.

"It doesn't matter if you're straight or gay", he told a Vanity Fair interviewer," the accusation is meaningless, and whether it's true or false is no one's business. I know who I am; what difference does it make what anyone else thinks? If I were a leopard and someone came up and started screaming 'you're a cow!'-is a leopard going to be uptight about this? He knows he's a leopard".

Gere's image as a heterosexual heartthrob was strengthened with his performance in "An Officer and a Gentlemen" with Debra Winger, which was a crowd-pleasing romance. The next few years were dry ones for him and he even questioned whether to carry on with his acting ambitions, but in 1990 he dug in and found a couple of successful roles in "Internal Affairs" and "Pretty Woman" with Julia Roberts.

These movies turned his career around again and put him in a commanding spot in Hollywood once again. He is always looking to balance his need to work in films that are meaningful to him and find films that will make money at the box-office.

He also works to bring his personal life into balance through Eastern Thought and activism. He is championing and helping the people of Tibet work towards freedom from Chinese repression.

"This was not a sexy subject when I first became involved, Gere told interviewer Devin Friedman," I met his Holiness the Dalai Lama in the early eighties. At that point we had a detente with China, and the State Department had a hands-off policy on the situation. That's what motivated me. Two decades later, it's personal for me. Social commitment deepens spiritual commitment and the other way around. The only way the planet can save itself is by involving itself. We are saving ourselves by saving Tibet."

I would like to acknowledge A&E's Biography website for the information gathered above.

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