Richard Gere
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Richard Gere is a descendant of Mayflower Pilgrims Francis Eaton, John Billington, George Soule, Richard Warren, Degory Priest, William Brewster and Francis Cooke. Richard's mother, Doris Anna, 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. Richard 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 first worked professionally at the Provincetown Playhouse on Cape Cod in 1971 where he starred in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. His 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.
After 1982, his career was dogged by several box office failures, but was somewhat resurrected after the release of both Internal Affairs and Pretty Woman in 1990. Richard's status as a leading man was again solidified, and he went on to star in several successful films throughout the 1990s, including Sommersby (1993), Primal Fear (1996), and Runaway Bride (1999) which reunited him with his Pretty Woman co-star Julia Roberts.
People magazine named Richard the "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1999. He was Harvard University'sHasty Pudding Theatricals' "Man of the Year" for 2006. In 2007, he co-starred with Jesse Eisenberg and Terrence Howard in The Hunting Party, a comic thriller in which he played a journalist in Bosnia. The same year he also starred with Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, and Cate Blanchett in Todd Haynes' semi-biographical film about Bob Dylan, I'm Not There.
Richard was married to supermodel Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995. In 2002, he married model and actress Carey Lowell. They have a son, Homer James Jigme Gere, who was born in 2000 and is named after Richard's father.
Although Richard was raised by Methodist parents; he acquired an interest in Buddhism when he traveled to Nepal in 1978 with the Brazilian painter, Sylvia Martins. He is now a practicing Buddhist and an active supporter of the Dalai Lama.
Buddhism is an offshoot of the pantheistic religion of Hinduism, originating around 525 BC in India. Buddhists focus on the philosophical and psychological teachings of Gautama Buddha and imitate his way of life. There are two major sects, Theravada, prevalent in south east Asia, and Mahayana, prevalent in China, Tibet, Korea and Japan. Theravada adherants attempt to train and purify the mind by following the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, hoping to understand the true nature of all things, eliminate stress and suffering from their experience, and achieve Nirvana (liberation). Mahayana is further subdivided into many sects, including Nichiren and Zen Buddhism.
Richard is also a persistent advocate for human rights in Tibet; he is a co-founder of the Tibet House, creator of The Gere Foundation, and he is Chairman of the Board of Directors for the International Campaign for Tibet. Because he strongly supports the Tibetan Independence Movement, he is permanently banned from entering The People's Republic of China. He was banned as an Academy Award presenter in 1993 after he used the opportunity to condemn the Chinese government. In September 2007, Richard called for the boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to put pressure on China to make Tibet independent. He starred in a politically themed pro-Tibet Lancia commercial featuring the Lancia Delta.
Richard actively supports Survival International, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights and lands of tribal peoples throughout the world. He contributed some of his writing for the book, We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009. The book explores the culture of peoples around the world, portraying both its diversity and the threats it faces. Richard's contribution to the book discusses the persecution and loss of land of the jummas, as an example of a tragic story that repeats itself in different continents of the world. He calls attention to the crime against their peaceful culture and how it reflects on our own relationship with nature and capacity to survive. The royalties from the sale of this book go to the indigenous rights organization, Survival International.
Richard campaigns for ecological causes and AIDS awareness. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Healing the Divide, an organization that supports global initiatives to promote peace, justice and understanding. He helped to establish the AIDS Care Home, a residential facility in India for women and children with AIDS, and also supports campaigns for AIDS awareness and education in that country. In 1999 he created the Gere Foundation India Trust to support a variety of humanitarian programs in India.
On April 15, 2007, he appeared at an AIDS awareness rally in Jaipur, India. During a live news conference to promote condom use among truck drivers, he affectionately embraced Bollywood superstar Shilpa Shetty, dipped her, and kissed her several times on the cheek. As a result of that gesture, a local court ordered the arrest of Gere and Shetty, finding them in violation "public obscenity" laws. Richard, who quickly fled the country, has said the controversy was "manufactured by a small hard-line political party." About a month later, a two-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, KG Balakrishnan, described the case as "frivolous" and believed that such complaints (against celebrities) were filed for "cheap publicity" and have brought a bad name to the country. They ruled that "Richard Gere is free to enter the country. This is the end of the matter."
For all the self-sacrificing, benevolent things Richard is doing, please pray with me that God will do a miraculous work in Richard's life and draw him into a personal relationship with the Son of God.
--Heidi