Richard Gere Net Worth: Richard Gere is well-known not only as an actor but also for his activism and Buddhist philosophy. He has acted in over 57 films and has won numerous honors, including two Golden Globes for Best Actor.
Richard Gere Early Life
Richard Tiffany Gere, the eldest son and second child of housewife Doris Ann (1924–2016) and NMIC insurance agent Homer George Gere, was born on August 31, 1949, in Philadelphia (born 1922).
His father had aspired to be a priest when he was younger. Gere was raised in Syracuse, New York, as a Methodist. George Lane Gere (1848–1932), his paternal great-grandfather, changed his surname from “Geer” to “Gere.”
One of his predecessors, also named George, was an Englishman who arrived in the Connecticut Colony in 1638 from Heavitree. Gere’s parents were both Mayflower descendants, and his ancestors include John Billington, William Brewster, Francis Eaton, Francis Cooke, Degory Priest, George Soule, and Richard Warren, among others.
He graduated from North Syracuse Central High School in 1967, where he excelled in gymnastics, music, and trumpet. He received a gymnastics scholarship to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he majored in philosophy but dropped out after two years.
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How Richard Gere Started His Acting Career?
Richard Tiffany Gere is an actor from the United States. He made his film debut in the 1970s, with supporting roles in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and Days of Heaven (1979).
His breakthrough came with his role in the 1980 film American Gigolo, which cemented his reputation as a leading man and a sex icon. An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), The Cotton Club (1984), Pretty Woman (1990), Sommersby (1993), Primal Fear (1996), Runaway Bride (1999), I’m Not There (2007), Arbitrage (2012), Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016).
He won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance as Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago (2002).
Richard Gere Successful Acting Career Journey
Richard began his career as an up-and-coming actor in both Broadway and off-Broadway productions. In 1969, he made his professional debut at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Provincetown Playhouse on Cape Cod.
In 1973, he made his Broadway debut in the original West End production of Grease in London. When he was featured as a gay Holocaust victim in Bent, a 1979 Broadway musical, Gere became one of the first Hollywood actors to portray a homosexual role. He won his first Theater World Award for his performance.
In the mid-to-late 1970s, Gere began appearing in Hollywood films. He was cast in a leading part in 1974’s The Lords of Flatbush but was replaced after a feud with his would-be co-star, Sylvester Stallone. He rose to prominence because of modest roles in films like Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and Terence Malick’s Days of Heaven (1978).
Gere was shot to fame in 1980 with his appearance in the film American Gigolo, which cemented his status as a leading man and a sex symbol. He cemented his reputation as a top leading man by playing in several successful films, notably An Officer and a Gentleman, in which he co-starred with Debra Winger in 1982.
Gere’s performance in both of these films catapulted him to stardom, grossing $130 million worldwide and earning him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast.
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How Richard Gere Became an Accomplished Musician?
Richard Gere has maintained a continuous film presence across a four-decade career, frequently surprising viewers with new surges of artistry and charisma. Gere is a superb musician as well as a multitalented and well-rounded performer.
He wrote and played the piano theme for Pretty Woman, as well as a guitar solo for Runaway Bride. He also practiced karate for An Officer and a Gentleman and acquired tap dancing for his role in Chicago.
Richard Gere Act as Philanthropy
As previously stated, Gere is a proponent of Tibetan human rights. He is the co-founder of Tibet House USA, the founder of the Gere Foundation, and the Chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet’s Board of Directors. He is permanently barred from entering the People’s Republic of China because he supports the Tibetan Independence Movement.
Gere is a supporter of Survival International, which works to safeguard tribal peoples’ lands and rights around the world. He published We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples in 2009, with royalties and sales going to Survival International.
Gere also promotes environmental and AIDS awareness projects. He was instrumental in the establishment of AIDS Care Home, an Indian residential institution for AIDS-affected women and children. In 1999, Richard established the Gere Foundation India Trust.
Gere endorsed and campaigned for Hillary Clinton for President in 2016, contributing $2,700 to her campaign.
Richard Gere Awards and Achievement
Gere presided over the 19th Moscow International Film Festival’s Jury in 1995.
On May 17, 2012, Albanian President Bamir Topi awarded Gere the “Medal of Gratitude” with the following citation: “With gratitude and honor outstanding personality of world art, a great humanist and activist for the protection of human rights, which unmasked and made known to the American public, and further, inhuman crimes, ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, in 1999, the Serbian military machine against the Albanian civilian population living in its land.”
The George Eastman Museum presented Gere with the George Eastman Award for significant contribution to the art of film on February 16, 2012.
Richard Gere Net Worth
Richard Gere is a $120 million dollar actor from the United States. Richard Gere began his acting career in the 1970s and is best known for his roles in “Pretty Woman,” “An Officer and a Gentleman,” and “Chicago.” He has been nominated for a number of acting awards, including the Golden Globe and SAG Awards, and he actively campaigns for Tibet’s human rights.
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Conclusion
Richard Gere had a knack for landing leading roles in films that would go on to become classics. In 1990, he co-starred in Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts, who was just getting her big break after the success of Mystic Pizza (1988).
Romantic comedies were popular in the 1990s, and they had the potential to become huge box office hits. Pretty Woman was a smashing blockbuster, winning the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Comedy Film. With the onscreen interplay between Gere and Roberts mesmerizing audiences, this economic triumph ensured that fans clamored for more.
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