With “Pretty Woman” the money was the lure – not the story
The actor no longer has the seductive smile that made him famous. But his fans now think of more than just seduction and the sparkling eyes of the former “Sexiest Man Alive.” The man who shone alongside Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman” and won a Golden Globe for his role in “Chicago” has now also made a name for himself as a great humanist – and is also a friend of the Dalai Lama.
Gere’s childhood has been written about countless times: Richard Tiffany Gere was born in Philadelphia in 1949. He grew up on a farm as the son of an insurance agent and a housewife. The musical boy was considered “the introvert” among the five siblings. Richard studied philosophy, but then the theater beckoned.
He first made his big name in the London production of the musical “Grease”. A role as a homosexual in a German concentration camp in Martin Sherman’s drama “Bent” brought him comparisons with the young Marlon Brando.
Gere finally made his breakthrough as a Hollywood star in 1980 with “A Man for Certain Hours”. The film “An Officer and a Gentleman” gave his career a further boost. After several flops, he won back the audience’s favor in 1990 as a corrupt cop in “Internal Affairs”. Gere initially decided to do “Pretty Woman” with Julia Roberts only for the money, as he admitted in an interview. It was only during filming that he began to like the story.
Gere and the women
Gere has appeared in front of the camera with many of Hollywood’s great ladies, such as Kim Basinger in “Cold Passion” (1992) and Jodie Foster in the southern epic “Sommersby” (1993). “Primal Fear” showed him as a star lawyer who turns the defense of a young psychopath into a media spectacle.
As a skilled criminal defense attorney in the musical “Chicago,” he won the Golden Globe for Best Male Performance in 2003. However, some critics consider “Arbitrage” (2012) to be the best performance of his long and successful career – a thriller about money and greed.
Gere was over 40 when he finally married Cindy Crawford, a fellow actress and model. After their divorce four years later, he moved in with former Bond girl Carey Lowell. The couple, who have a son together, also divorced. Today, Gere is with the Spaniard Alejandra Silva and has two sons with her. But when it came to his private life, he was always rather reserved. He always kept the names of his children a secret.
Deep friendship with the Dalai Lama
As he grew older, Gere increasingly attracted attention as a philanthropist. Part of his salary goes to the foundation named after him, which supports humanitarian projects all over the world. The superstar also found fulfillment in his faith. Gere turned to Buddhism many years ago. Hence his deep friendship with the Dalai Lama, at whose lectures he sometimes sits next to him on stage.
We’ll probably see Gere on stage and certainly in front of the camera for a while longer. At least if he lives to be 101 like his father. He always saw him as an older version of himself, Gere said in Cannes. “I look like my father too. And it was crazy when we went through the process of aging in the film, how much I saw myself in a few years, how I would look – assuming I live to be as old as my father. It’s a very strange thing.”
