Richard Gere

Season 8, Episode 814

Original Airdate: May 5, 2002

Born August 31, 1949 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Richard Gere grew up in upstate New York, where he spent much of his time studying music and learning to play the piano, guitar, and trumpet. He graduated from high school and enrolled at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he studied philosophy and drama, but left after two years.

After leaving school, Gere worked brief stints with both the Provincetown Playhouse and Seattle Repertory Theater and won positive reviews for theater work in New York and London. He won his first film role in 1975's Report to the Commissioner, starring Michael Moriarty and Yaphet Kotto.

In 1977, he caught the attention of fans and film critics with his portrayal of Tony Lopanto in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, based on the novel by Judith Rossner and starring Diane Keaton. Gere achieved true star and sex symbol status in 1980 with the release of American Gigolo, in which he played wealthy, well-dressed male prostitute Julian Kay.

After a brief return to the New York stage, starring as a gay holocaust victim in Bent, Gere returned to the silver screen in the highly successful romance An Officer and a Gentleman, starring opposite Debra Winger.

After roles in a string of lackluster films through the rest of 1980s, Gere revitalized his career with Internal Affairs (1990) and Pretty Woman (1990), the latter grossing more than $400 million and launching the career of co-star Julia Roberts. Later films include Primal Fear (1996), Red Corner (1997), Dr. T. and the Women (2000), The Mothman Prophecies (2002) and Chicago (2002), for which he received a Golden Globe Award.

Gere married supermodel Cindy Crawford in 1991. Dogged by unpleasant media attention and rumors about the integrity of their relationship, the couple divorced in 1995. On February 6, 2000, Carey Lowell, Gere's girlfriend, gave birth to his first son, Homer James Jigme Gere.