Richard Tiffany Gere

On this day in 1949, Richard Gere, the star of such hit films as An Officer
and a Gentleman (1982), Pretty Woman (1990) and Chicago (2002), is born
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Gere was raised in the Syracuse, New York area and attended the University
of Massachusetts at Amherst on a gymnastics scholarship. He left college
before graduating to pursue a career in theater. On the big screen, Gere’s
early credits included roles in 1977’s Looking for Mr. Goodbar, with Diane
Keaton, and 1978’s Days of Heaven, with Sam Shepard and Brooke Adams.

2009