People: Oct. 27, 1986

While prepping for his role as a media consultant and dirty trickster in the film Power, Richard Gere, 37, was reminded of his college days in the ’60s. Back then, as a student at the University of Massachusetts, Gere got involved with S.D.S. and marched on the Pentagon but later “dropped out of politics and became very cynical,” he says. However, after a trip to El Salvador last summer, he felt the old activist itch and decided to campaign against aid for the contras in Nicaragua. Last week the actor hit the hustings in upstate New York, livening up fund raisers for Democratic Congressional Candidates , Rosemary Pooler of Syracuse, his hometown, and Louise Slaughter of Rochester. As he went door to door speaking on Central America, Gere met a swelling electorate. “People were extraordinarily generous,” he said. “They were dressed up in their best. Suddenly 18 people lived in each house; 15 cars were in every driveway.” The show biz apparently worked. Said Pooler: “My 17 1/ 2-year-old daughter will never be the same.”