Richard Tiffany Gere was born on 31 August 1949, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA, into a family descended from ‘Mayflower’ passengers who arrived in America 400 years previously. Richard is a popular and sought-after actor, who is perhaps best know for his starring roles in ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ and ‘Pretty Woman’.
So just how rich is Richard Gere? Sources estimate that Richard has an estimated net worth of $100 million, which wealth he has earned mainly through his career as a film actor which began in the late 1960s. He is a nominee and the winner of various awards including a Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award among others.
Richard Gere Net Worth $100 Million
Richard Gere’s family were relatively normal, with no connections to the entertainment industry; his father, Homer was an insurance agent and his mother, Doris a housekeeper. Richard was educated at North Syracuse Central High School, and then at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, but didn’t graduate, leaving to begin his career as an actor, actually on the stage. His first starring role was in ‘Grease’ on the London stage in 1973, but he then moved to California to break into film acting, but live performances had seen the start of growth to his net worth.
In 1975 Gere appeared on the big screen with his first role of Billy in the Milton Katselas directed film ‘Report to the Commissioner’. Later, Richard took part in the films ‘Baby Blue Marine’ directed by John D. Hancock, ‘Looking for Mr. Goodbar’ written and directed by Richard Brooks and ‘Bloodbrothers’ directed by Robert Mulligan.
In 1978 Richard increased his net worth considerably by starring in the drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick, ‘Days of Heaven’, which brought him a David di Donatello Award for the Best Foreign Actor. In 1980 his sudden prominence as a sex symbol brought him the role of Julian in ‘American Gigolo’, written and directed by Paul Schrader. Moreover, Gere continued his successful net worth accumulation with a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for the Best Actor in a drama film directed by Taylor Hackford – ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ in 1982. Since then he has starred in many films, including ‘The Honorary Consul’ directed by John Mackenzie, ‘Breathless’ co-written and directed by Jim McBride, ‘The Cotton Club’ co-written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, ‘King David’ directed by Bruce Beresford, ‘No Mercy’ directed by Richard Pearce, ‘Power’ directed by Sidney Lumet, ‘Miles From Home’ directed by Gary Sinise and ‘Internal Affairs’ directed by Mike Figgis.
In addition to the above, Richard Gere’s net worth rose significantly after he landed the role of Edward Lewis alongside Julia Roberts who took the role of Vivian Ward in the romantic comedy film ‘Pretty Woman’ directed by Garry Marshall. It is considered to be the most financially successful film in this category as the box office takings were over $463 million. Moreover, the film brought a Golden Globe nomination for the Best Actor. Richard was then nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for an Outstanding Supporting Actor for his role in ‘And the Band Played On’ directed by Roger Spottiswoode.
In 1997, Richard increased his net worth winning a National Board of Review Freedom of Expression Award for a leading role in ‘Red Corner’ directed by Jon Avnet. Gere’s net worth jumped again after Rob Marshall’s directed film ‘Chicago’ was released, in which Gere starred alongside Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Richard also won a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his outstanding acting in the film. The other films that have brought Gere awards or nominations have been ‘The Hoax’ directed by Lasse Hallstrom, ‘I’m Not There’ directed by Todd Haynes and ‘Arbitrage’ directed by Nicholas Jarecki.
Overall during an acting career spanning almost 40 years, Richard Gere has appeared in over 50 films, and been nominated for 15 awards of which he has won six. Of course this recognition did wonders for his net worth too.
In his personal life, Richard Gere has been married twice, firstly to model Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995. His second marriage was to actress and model Carey Lowell in 2002 – they have a son, but the couple separated in 2013. Gere is known as a strong advocate for Tibetan independence, partly through his long-term interest in Buddhism, and for supporting tribal peoples. He has written a book, ‘We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples’, released in 2009, some royalties of which he has donated to the aforementioned struggles.
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, David di Donatello Award for the Best Foreign Actor, BFCA Critics' Choice Joel Siegel Award (2009)
Nominations
Screen Actors Guild Award (2003), Satellite Award for Best Actor (2007, 2001), Teen Choice Award (2003, 2005), Blockbuster Entertainment Award (2000)
Movies
‘The Honorary Consul’ , ‘Breathless’, ‘Report to the Commissioner’, 'An Officer and a Gentlemean' , 'Pretty Woman', ‘Chicago’, ‘Red Corner’, ‘The Hoax’
TV Shows
Extra (TV Show), Kickin' It (2007), Behind the Movie (2003), Dateline NBC (2003), Barbara Walters Special (2005), This Emotional Life (TV show)
Here's a guy who's obviously Mussolini. How is it possible that people would be supporting this guy? You can try to find reasons. It's about how disillusioned they are, how afraid, how confused. Trump is a demagogue, a clown - but people like clarity. Here's this guy who says, 'I'm going to fix this problem for you. It doesn't matter how, I'll just take care of it'. He's finding villains everywhere and then telling people he'll get rid of them. We'll get rid of the Jews, the blacks. Anyone that we perceive as a problem, we'll get rid of. This is how it starts. Intelligent people aren't seeing this - don't make the mistake of thinking it's just idiots who are backing Trump - this kind of thinking is a slippery slope.
2
There doesn't appear to be any sort of basis for any of this. I have a feeling something hidden is at work here that will someday see the light of day. I keep asking myself where all this personal enmity between George Bush and Saddam Hussein comes from. It's like the story of Captain Ahab and the great white whale from Moby Dick. We have to say 'stop.' There's no reason for a war. At the moment Hussein is not threatening anybody. It'd be different if he was staring somebody down with a loaded gun in his hand. But there doesn't seem to be any indications whatsoever that this man poses an immediate threat to anybody. America has never paid any attention to other people, so it's absurd for Bush to say that it's all in the best interests of the Iraqi people. If the United States marches into Iraq without the backing of the United Nations, that will be done entirely without the backing of the American people.
3
[In 2012, reflecting on working with Debra Winger in the hit film An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)] I was delighted, she was perfect for the part...She has a really interesting quality. Again, I haven't seen this film in 30 years. But she is, she's really a kind of true heart in the camera. It's very hard to be as kind of open and unguarded and nice. You know, a nice person and kind of a genuine person and true heart on camera. That's not an easy thing to do. She's able to pull that off. I could never be that way. I was too complicated. There were too many things going on. Just the straightforward presence is an extremely difficult thing to do.
4
[1993] My wife doesn't understand why I'm a sex symbol. She says I don't look different from a guy on he street.
5
[1993] I've always maintained that actors are best when they find characters that are congruent with the emotions they're going through at the moment.
6
I love almost everything Ingmar Bergman did. I came out of that era, the '60s and '70s..., so all that and Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini are just great. Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a friend of mine, and I loved all his films too, and Werner Herzog. That whole time was when I was trying to figure out who I was, and stretching myself, and those are all the films and filmmakers that meant a lot to me.[2015]
7
[on Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)] Reading it captivated me immediately. It was very emotional and tense, even though I'd never heard of the story before that. My first thought was, I don't know if I want to act in this, but I certainly want to make it and help it along.
8
[on why he starred in The Mothman Prophecies (2002)] The emotional stuff was rich. In the beginning, my character's in the perfect job, he has a beautiful wife, they're talking about babies, they're buying a house, everything's great and then literally in the middle of laughing, there's a car accident and she's gone. Now if you put that on top of the metaphysical story of "Is there anything out there?", then you have something that has a lot of power.
9
[on his character Jesse Lujack from Breathless (1983)] Basically the root of him is music - music manifested by his moods. He uses the energy and emotions of the things around him to his own purposes. There's not guilt in him. He refuses guilt, he refuses despair. He turns despair around. He's a funny kind of character; he's not the kind of person you'd bring home to your mother and father. He'd be pocketing things; he doesn't see possessions as being personal. He has an outlaw mentality we haven't seen for a while.
10
[on Brooklyn's Finest (2009)] I read the script and I thought, this is really unusual. These three interlinking short stories that don't really interact. But somehow, like music, contrapuntally inform each other, in kind of a mysterious way.
11
I'm still like this guy who, like, washed his dad's car. I don't feel like I'm some sort of rarefied species of creature.
12
Pretty Woman (1990) is something I never would have done. Neither is An Officer and a Gentleman (1982). I had no interest in these scripts whatsoever. It was the same person knocking my door down on both of them, Jeffrey Katzenberg, first at Paramount, then at Disney, who was one of my first friends out here and still is. At the point of Pretty Woman (1990), I had been kind of out of things for a while. I consciously [had] just said, "Going off to do other things" and I fucked up my career to the point where [people weren't saying], "Well, let's get Gere to do that". I had to crawl a little bit to get scripts. Doing Internal Affairs (1990), for instance, was a very difficult decision for me to make because, potentially, that could have been such a piece of shit. It turns out to be one of my favorite movies and best experiences, too.
13
[on agent Ed Limato]: He was the bridge between old-time Hollywood and Hollywood present. Ed was a master at orchestrating all of the feelings correctly. He had a rare ability to read a script and see what could be.
14
[on George W. Bush] We have a President right now who lies constantly and gets away with it, apparently.
15
When I am there [Tibet], I am very happy. The Tibetans radiate. They literally send out light. His Holiness [the The Dalai Lama] generates love and compassion to every human being. He has committed himself to that. I haven't made that leap yet. I haven't given up self-aspiration. I still love making movies.
16
I don't want to be a personality.
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Fact
1
They have a mansion in Malibu, an apartment in Manhattan and a ranch in Connecticut.
2
Cindy collects the clothes he wore in his early films and bought the white naval uniform he wore in 'An Officer and a Gentleman' at a celebrity auction.
3
He and Cindy married in a secret ceremony in Las Vegas.
4
His first break came in the 70's as Danny in the lead role in the British stage version of Grease.
5
By the age of 14 he was a great trumpet player and gymnast.
6
His father was an insurance salesman.
7
He didn't get along with his leading lady Debra Winger during the making of the hit film An Officer and a Gentleman (1982). She publicly called him a "brickwall", while he said there was "tension" between them. He played the title role, had top billing, had more screen time and earned a larger salary than her, while hers was just a love interest role. Still, he reacted badly when he realized that she was stealing every scene she was in with her charisma and acting talent that resulted in a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her, while he wasn't nominated at all. Thirty years later, they patched things up when she presented him with an award at the Rome Film Festival.
On an episode of The Graham Norton Show (2007), he recounted a trip he had made to Borneo to visit the Dayak tribe. It was in the desolate part of the jungle with a treacherous drop off from the plane. When he arrived, they excitedly greeted him by exclaiming 'officer gentleman' repeatedly.
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Westchester, New York [December 2009]
16
Is star of television ads in Japan for Tokyo Towers real estate development. [March 2005]
17
Gere's middle name - Tiffany - is from his mother's maiden name.
18
Though he's been nominated multiple times for a Golden Globe and once for a Screen Actors Guild Award (two common indicators for an Academy Award nomination), he has never been nominated for an Oscar.
19
Family friend of the Thurmans, i.e.: Robert Thurman, whom Richard Gere founded New York City's Tibet House (a nonprofit institution devoted to preserving the living culture of Tibet) with in 1987, Uma Thurman, etc.
20
Co-owner, with wife Carey Lowell, of the "Bedford Post Inn" in Bedford, New York. The Inn has eight rooms, two restaurants, a yoga studio, a meditation center.
In 1993, People Magazine didn't name a "Sexiest Man Alive", but named Richard and his then-wife Cindy Crawford as Sexiest Couple'.
27
For his role as Clifford Irving in The Hoax (2006), Gere shaved back his hairline, got a perm, and even altered the appearance of his nose to fit the part.
28
Turned down the role of Gordon Gekko in Wall Street (1987). Has since said that is the role he regrets passing on the most.
29
Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals' 2006 Man of the Year
30
In a London Evening Standard interview to promote Chicago (2002), he claimed to have brought a 750cc Triumph T140V Bonneville from Triumph's Meriden factory with his first paycheck while touring with the stage production of "Grease". He also rode the same updated model, a 1978 T140E, in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and an even earlier model, a 1960s 650cc T120R Bonneville. in Mr. Jones (1993).
Is President of The Gere Foundation, founded in 1991. The non-profit organization focusing on international humanitarian issues, with emphasis on Tibet.
33
On the November 16, 2007 episode of Live with Kelly and Michael (1988) (aka "Live with Regis & Kelly"), he cleared up the fact he is not vegetarian but has not eaten red meat for 30 years.
34
Visited Kosovo's fugitives in F.Y.R.O.M., during the Kosovo crisis in 1999.
Some of his earliest photos, known as "head shots" were taken by boyhood friend and struggling photographer Herb Ritts. The people handling Gere were so impressed with the photos, they began hiring Ritts for other assignments and he is now a top photographer.
37
He trained for five months for the tap dance scene in Chicago (2002).
38
He has English, and small amounts of Scots-Irish (Northern Irish), French, and Dutch, ancestry. He has deep roots in the state of Pennsylvania, and is also a Mayflower descendant.
39
Is referenced in the 2001 hit song "Crying at the Discothéque" by Swedish dance group Alcazar.
Named his son: Homer James Jigme. "Jigme" means "fearless" in Tibetan.
42
When the Chinese Government asked Gere to one of their film festivals, Gere would go attend two conditions: 1. That he was allowed to bring his own interpreter and 2. That he would stay in Taipei, Taiwan during his visit. The government agreed and Gere went to the festival.
43
Became a father for the 1st time at age 50 when his girlfriend [now 2nd wife] Carey Lowell gave birth to their son Homer James Jigme Gere on February 6, 2000.
44
An accomplished pianist and music writer; in fact, he composed and performed the piano solo featured in Pretty Woman (1990).
45
Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world. [1991]
46
He appeared in the music video and sang in the choir on the song "Voices That Care."
47
Cindy Crawford and Richard were married 12 December 1991 by Rev. Wes McPherson at the Little Church of the West, Las Vegas.
48
A Buddhist for over a decade, Gere was banned from the Oscars once after making anti-China comments on the air at the 1993 ceremony.
49
Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1977" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 29. [1977]
50
He received a gymnastics scholarship to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he majored in philosophy; he dropped out in 1969 to pursue acting.
51
Was a member of the student council, gymnastics team, lacrosse team, and ski team.
52
Graduated from North Syracuse Central High School. [1967]
53
People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive. [1999]
54
Is the second of five children born to Homer and Doris Gere
55
Attended the University of Massachusetts. Dropped out to pursue acting.
LOL these are very entertaining, but you can only estimate what an actor is “worth”. And that is based on published salaries per film or project.