Richard Gere

A late replacement for John Travolta, who reportedly dropped out of American Gigolo citing his mother's death, though the film's gay subtext was also a factor, he turned Giorgio Armani suits and Blondie's "Call Me" into a sex symbol moment the industry wasn't expecting. An Officer and a Gentleman followed two years later, grossing around $130 million and locking in his romantic lead status. By the time Pretty Woman pulled in over $460 million in 1990, he'd secured three separate phases of the same career, not an easy trick.

At the 1993 Academy Awards, he used his presenter slot to call out China's treatment of Tibet. Studios quietly stopped returning his calls after that. He's said openly the advocacy cost him major Hollywood roles as the Chinese box office became too valuable to risk. That's not a pivot story. That's a 30-year bet. In 2025, Spain gave him the Goya Internacional Award partly for that Tibet work, and he now has a recurring role in Paramount+'s The Agency to go along with it.

Two young sons (born 2019 and 2020), a wife 34 years younger, and a home outside Madrid in Spain, is not the retirement arc anyone scripted for him. He met Alejandra Silva in 2014 at her family's hotel in Positano when both were mid-divorce; he reportedly sent flowers for months before she agreed to a date. He composed the piano theme in Pretty Woman himself. He turned down Die Hard and Wall Street for romantic leads instead. Every choice tracks.