Richard Gere is one of the defining male stars of the 1980s and 1990s, a performer whose combination of physical magnetism and actor’s instincts kept him at the top of the industry across four decades. He broke through with American Gigolo (1980) and An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), then built a career that includes Pretty Woman (1990), Primal Fear (1996), Chicago (2002), and Unfaithful (2002), winning a Golden Globe for the first of those last two. His willingness to take difficult, morally complex roles alongside mainstream romantic leads gave him a career shape that few actors of his era managed.

On screen, Gere operates through a cool, almost detached sensuality that made him one of the most compelling leading men of his era, a quality Pretty Woman used to enormous commercial effect. His silver hair, dark eyes, and square jaw have aged into a distinguished handsomeness that suits him as naturally as the dark-haired intensity of his earlier work, and the camera has always found him effortlessly. He has worked more selectively in recent years, but the best of his later performances, particularly in Primal Fear, remind audiences that the charm was always covering something sharper underneath.