Richard Gere
American cinema in the decades following the New Hollywood era of the 1970s produced a generation of performers who moved fluidly between stage, screen, and television. Richard Gere, born in Philadelphia on August 31, 1949, emerged from that landscape as an actor whose career has spanned film, television, stage, and voice work, as well as roles behind the camera as both a producer and director.
Gere has worked across nearly every corner of the performing arts. His stage work earned him a Theatre World Award early in his career, signaling recognition from critics and industry observers at a time when he was still establishing himself as a presence in live performance. That range — from Broadway-style theatrical work to major film productions — has defined his professional life across multiple decades. He's also worked as a photographer, adding yet another creative discipline to his public profile.
Beyond performance, Gere has been active as a human rights defender, a role that brought him the James Parks Morton Interfaith Award, the Geuzenpenning, the Marian Anderson Award, and the Light of Truth Award. These honors reflect a sustained commitment to advocacy that has run alongside his entertainment career rather than separate from it. The Marian Anderson Award in particular recognizes artists who have used their public platform in service of humanitarian causes, placing Gere in a tradition of performers whose work extends beyond the screen.
On the film side, his portrayal of Billy Flynn in the 2002 musical Chicago earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. That same film brought him a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, shared with his fellow ensemble members, as well as a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast. He has also received the Donostia Award, a lifetime achievement honor presented at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, and the David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actor from the Italian film industry. Taken together, those honors from multiple countries reflect a film career that has drawn attention well beyond the United States.
Quotes by Richard Gere
Richard Gere's insights on:
In the process of developing a character, you do, in fact, start to take him on as a personality.
Everyone seems to think they know what acting techniques are. Techniques just help you get to a certain place, but if the thing is happening just by itself, you don't need those techniques.
A lot of making a movie is the comfort level of the people. It’s just feeling open. We need to get along. We have to know something about each other.
Movie acting is primarily listening. If you’re really engaged, that’s all a movie audience wants to see is you processing what’s happening in your world.
I find that you can use an acting technique when the thing isn’t working, not that you make the technique the end result of your work. You use the technique when you’re in trouble and things aren’t flowing the way they should. It’s a way of fooling yourself to make it work again.
To read your own mind is to look at your self and read your soul. Hatred becomes love and that is the path I am working on.
There’s really one character for every actor. The voyage is to find that one character.
I can’t remember that I was ever looking for anything. I was waiting for something to touch me. It’s like, I’ll be open to it, and see if it moves me. There has to be a “falling in love” moment.
People don’t understand what happiness is, so they have an idea of what will make them happy, but it never does.