Richard Gere: Actor, humanitarian
The star of such acclaimed and popular films as "Days of Heaven," "An Officer and a Gentleman," "Pretty Woman" and "Chicago," is just as widely-known as a humanitarian and activist, who has advocated for social justice and disaffected communities, including refugees, the homeless, and Tibetans persecuted by the Chinese government.
Pictured: Actor Richard Gere in London at the 2013 U.K. premiere of the film"Arbitrage."
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
His Holiness the Dalai Lama poses with actor Richard Gere August 12, 1999, during a photo opportunity at the end of a press conference to discuss his visit to New York.
Gere's life is grounded in his Buddhist faith, which he says gives him perspective. "It's a path that I trust totally," he told CBS News. "The more energy I put into it, the more results I get."
Rome
For nearly 30 years, Gere has used his fame to speak for the disadvantaged and oppressed, from Tibet, to those living with HIV/AIDS, to the Coalition for the Homeless, which he works closely with in New York.
The actor recently traveled to a soup kitchen in Rome, and to the Italian island of Lampedusa, to meet with refugees who have been crossing the Mediterranean into Europe.
"A celebrity has this ability to shine a light on an issue," CBS News' Seth Doane said, adding, "It's also a huge responsibility."
"I have to know a little bit what I'm talking about -- that's really the responsibility," Gere replied. "That's why I'm going to Lampedusa. If I'm going to talk about refugees, I gotta be there."
"Kojak"
Raised in upstate New York, Richard Gere has been acting since he won the lead in "The King and I" in high school. He would hone his dramatic skills on stage, in summer stock and on Broadway (he was an understudy in the musical "Grease").
After small roles in the films "Report to the Commissioner" and "Baby Blue Marine," Gere appeared on the TV series "Kojak" as part of a trio of liquor store robbers who end up kidnapping a young girl. Bad news for him - the young girl is Kojak's niece!
"Looking for Mr. Goodbar"
In "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" (1977), in which Diane Keaton makes a series of unfortunate encounters with men in bars, Richard Gere plays a man who attracts, and then stalks Keaton.
Pose
Photographer Herb Ritts took pictures of Richard Gere while the two were waiting for a tire to be changed. The images turned up shortly afterwards in Vogue, Esquire and Mademoiselle -- helping to lift both their careers. "[They'd] run all the images from the gas station that I'd taken, which was kind of interesting -- and I got paid for it," Ritts told CBS News.
"Days of Heaven"
Director Terrence Malick offered Gere the lead in the 1978 film "Days of Heaven," playing a young farm worker on the run for murder with his lover (Brooke Adams).
"I could feel when Terry asked me to do the movie and we were going to start shooting, I know that my life had taken a leap," he said.
"Bloodbrothers"
Richard Gere and Tony Lo Bianco in the coming-of-age drama "Bloodbrothers" (1978), based on Richard Price's novel.
"Yanks"
"They're overpaid, oversexed, and over here" - the Brits' take on American GIs in England prior to D-Day.
Richard Gere and Lisa Eichhorn starred in the romantic wartime drama "Yanks" (1979), directed by John Schlesinger.
"American Gigolo"
In the stylish "American Gigolo" (1980), by writer-director Paul Schrader, Richard Gere played a male escort who becomes a little too involved with his clients, and finds himself fingered for murder. Co-starring Lauren Hutton.
"An Officer and a Gentleman"
"An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982), in which Gere plays an aspiring Navy pilot grappling with a tough drill instructor, and engaged in a challenging romance with Debra Winger, was a box office smash.
"That was a really wonderful experience shooting that movie," Gere told "Sunday Morning" in 2012.
"As you were making the film, did you realize, 'Hey, we've got a hit here, people are gonna love this'?" asked Rita Braver.
"No, no, no, in fact, no one knew," he said.
"Breathless"
In "Breathless" (1983), a remake of Jean-Luc Godard's French New Wave classic, Richard Gere is a drifter whose obsessions include Valérie Kaprisky.
"The Cotton Club"
Francis Ford Coppola directed the 1984 musical-crime drama "The Cotton Club," featuring Richard Gere as a musician who gets mixed up with underworld types, as well as with Dutch Schultz's girlfriend (Diane Lane).
"King David"
The Biblical tale of King David and Bathsheba was told in the 1985 film "King David," starring Richard Gere and Alice Krige.
"Internal Affairs"
Andy Garcia is a police investigator trying to pin a crooked cop (Richard Gere) in the thriller "Internal Affairs" (1990).
"Pretty Woman"
In the 1990 romantic comedy "Pretty Woman," Julia Roberts stars as a prostitute hired by Richard Gere, with whom she develops a deepening relationship. The film was a box office hit, and Roberts earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
"Sommersby"
Transposing the tale of Martin Guerre from 16th century France to post-Civil War America, "Sommersby" (1993) stars Richard Gere as a long-missing soldier who returns to his farm and family, and must convince the suspicious (including his wife, played by Jodie Foster) that he really is Jack Sommersby.
Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford
Richard Gere and supermodel Cindy Crawford enter Lincoln Center in New York on May 2, 1994 for the 1994 Humanitarian Award from T.J. Martell Foundation for Leukemia, Cancer, and AIDS Research.
The couple, who married in 1991, divorced four years later.
"First Knight"
In "First Knight" (1995), Richard Gere played Lancelot, the most trusted knight of King Arthur (Sean Connery). But that trust gets put to the test, thanks to Lancelot's interest in Guinevere (Julia Ormond).
"Primal Fear"
In "Primal Fear" (1996), Richard Gere plays the defense attorney of an altar boy (Edward Norton) accused in the murder of an archbishop.
"Red Corner"
In "Red Corner" (1997), Richard Gere is an American businessman in China who is framed for murder.
"The Jackal"
Richard Gere plays a former IRA sniper who is recruited to help track down an assassin in the 1997 thriller, "The Jackal," costarring Sidney Poitier.
Protest in Washington, D.C.
Actor Richard Gere holds the hand of 67-year-old Adhe Tapontsang, a former prisoner of the Chinese government now living in exile, during a rally to protest the human rights situation in Tibet, October 29, 1997 in Washington's Lafayette Park across from the White House. The protest coincided with the visit of Chinese President Zemin Jiang, in Washington for meetings with President Bill Clinton.
"Runaway Bride"
Julia Roberts and Richard Gere were reteamed in the 1999 romantic comedy "Runaway Bride," in which a journalist is out to get the lowdown on a tabloid sensation who has already left three men standing at the altar.
Macedonia
Richard Gere lifts an ethnic Albanian child while touring the Stenkovec refugee camp outside Skopje, Macedonia, on Wednesday, April 28, 1999.
"Autumn in New York"
In "Autumn in New York" (2000), Richard Gere is a lothario who falls heavily for a younger, and terminally-ill, woman (Winona Ryder).
"Unfaithful"
In "Unfaithful" (2002), Gere and his "Cotton Club" costar Diane Lane star as a couple whose seemingly-happy relationship is roiled by the woman's adultery. Lane earned an Oscar nomination.
"Chicago"
In "Chicago" (2002), based on the Broadway musical, Gere plays legendary lawyer Billy Flynn, who can get any woman off death row, for the right price.
Gere embraced the challenges of making a big-screen musical, and says that he wasn't worried about singing and dancing in front of the camera. "I've done musicals when I was a kid. It was kind of in my blood that I had done that," Gere told CBS News in 2003. "In terms of singing, we all kind of dove in and just did it. And in terms of the dancing, although Catherine [Zeta-Jones] was the only one who was really trained as a dancer, we had choreography that worked for us."
"Chicago"
He did find tap dancing challenging, though. "I was learning from scratch to do something that - for anyone - is very difficult. So that was daunting. It was deeply humbling. I was very shy about it when I was learning it - I'd be in a separate room and lock the doors. And no one was allowed to come in there, just me and my teacher. I got very frustrated with myself.
"So there was a lot of screaming and yelling. And I didn't know anyone could hear this, but apparently it was a joke on the set that 'Oh, Richard's in there working on tap dancing.'"
By the time it came to film his big dance scene, he said he was feeling confident. "I dove in and never looked around. And all the crew and everyone were like, 'Whoa, where did THAT come from?'"
Golden Globes
Richard Gere and Renee Zellweger pose backstage with their trophies during the 60th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 19, 2003 in Beverly Hills, California. Zellweger won Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy), and Gere won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy) for "Chicago."
"Shall We Dance"
In "Shall We Dance?" - a remake of a 1977 Japanese film - Gere plays a married businessman who searches for the something missing from his life at a dance studio, where he secretly begins taking ballroom dance lessons. Could instructor Jennifer Lopez be more than just a dance partner?
"Bee Season"
In "Bee Season" (2005), based on Myla Goldberg's novel, Richard Gere plays a professor focused on imparting religious teachings to his son and daughter, as strains threaten to tear the family apart.
World Leaders Forum
Richard Gere and Uma Thurman stand as the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, arrives onstage for the World Leaders Forum at Columbia University, Monday, Sept. 26, 2005 in New York.
"The Hoax"
In "The Hoax" (2007), Gere played writer Clifford Irving, who announced in 1970 he had been chosen by Howard Hughes to help write the reclusive billionaire's autobiography - except it was all a sham.
In a 2007 interview for "Sunday Morning," Gere told correspondent Erin Moriarty, "I kind of imagine Clifford sitting around at a dinner party - and by all accounts, he was an incredibly charming guy - saying, 'What if you wrote a book about someone who could never refute it because he is too crazy to refute it?'"
XVI International Aids Conference
Richard Gere speaks with the public at the end of a press conference during the the XVI International Aids Conference in Toronto, Canada, August 14, 2006. An estimated 20,000 participants met at the conference to discuss the treatment, care and prevention of HIV/AIDS, twenty-five years after the first reports of the disease began to appear.
Carey Lowell and Richard Gere
Carey Lowell and Richard Gere attend the AmFAR Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street January 31, 2007 in New York City.
The two actors were wed in 2002 and have one son. They separated after 11 years of marriage.
"I'm Not There"
In Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There," in which several actors (male and female) enact aspects of the life of Bob Dylan, Richard Gere portrayed Dylan as Billy the Kid. (Dylan had starred in the Sam Peckinpah film, "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.")
"Nights in Rodanthe"
In "Nights in Rodanthe" (2008), Richard Gere and Diane Lane are two emotionally troubled souls who find solace at a bed and breakfast on the North Carolina coast.
Senate Hearing on Tibet
Actor and Tibet activist Richard Gere listens as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte (right) testifies on April 23, 2008 during a Senate hearing on the crisis in Tibet, in Washington, D.C.
"Brooklyn's Finest"
Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day") directed "Brooklyn's Finest" (2009), in which Richard Gere plays a veteran cop nearing retirement. Costarring Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle.
Rome Film Festival
Richard Gere and his canine costar in "Hachi: A Dog Story" arrive for a screening at the Rome Film Festival, Oct. 16, 2009.
"Hachi" was based on a popular Japanese story about a faithful dog that used to wait every day at a train station for its owner, a university professor, even for a decade after the professor died.
Directed by Lasse Hallstrom, the film moves the story to a train station in contemporary Rhode Island.
Gere said that when he started reading the script, "I cried like a baby. I wasn't sure if it was just a very sensitive reaction I had that day, so I read it again a few days later and had the same reaction."
"Amelia"
In the 2009 biopic "Amelia," Richard Gere played the husband of aviator Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank).
"Arbitrage"
In "Arbitrage," costarring Susan Sarandon, Gere played a charming, debonair and crooked hedge fund manager.
"It's a movie about his moral challenges, and how one thing after another shoves him further and further up against a stone wall with no way out," Gere told "Sunday Morning"'s Rita Braver in 2012. "But I think as we go through the movie, we realize that everyone in this movie is morally challenged - everybody, from the police to the lawyers, to his own family."
"The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"
Everybody dance! Richard Gere joined the cast for "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" (2015).
"Time Out of Mind"
In "Time Out of Mind," Gere (pictured with Ben Vereen) played a homeless man on the fringes of New York. With very little dialogue and long-distance camera shots, Gere almost disappears on the city's streets. (During shooting he was mistaken by passers-by as a real homeless man.)
CBS News' Seth Doane asked Gere, "What made you want to make this movie about being a homeless man?"
"There are 60,000 people homeless in New York City," he replied. "And some estimates close to a million in the country. It's a serious issue. It can be viewed as a problem, or it can be viewed as a responsibility we have."
Filming it, Gere said, "I think you start to actually feel what it's like to be fragmented in that world."
"The Benefactor"
In "The Benefactor" (2016), Richard Gere plays a reclusive billionaire who comes to life again with the opportunity to interfere beneficially in the life of a young woman, the daughter of friends killed in an accident.
Lampedusa
At Lampedusa, an Italian island just off the coast of Tunisia that is the entry-point to Europe for thousands of refugees, Gere met with residents and staff inside the migrant center.
"This is the real deal situation," Gere said. "Being in the west, our normal lives and our high-level questions that we're dealing with, are really ridiculous when you look at the survival level here of people."
But he also noted that there was joy to be found: "Look around; there are not sad people here. These are people who have created community."
The Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama blesses actor Richard Gere after addressing followers and supporters during an event at the Bender Arena on the campus of American University on June 13, 2016 in Washington, D.C. The exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader delivered a speech titled "A Peaceful Mind In A Modern World."