PHILADELPHIA — Award-winning actor and human rights activist Richard Gere became the 2007 recipient of the Marian Anderson Award, which honors artists whose leadership benefits humanity.

Gere, 58, who was chosen because of his philanthropy and advocacy on behalf of independence for Tibet and better care for HIV/AIDS patients, accepted the award and its accompanying $100,000 honorarium Monday night at a Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts gala.

"I'm not worthy of this award in any way whatsoever," Gere said. "I can't tell you how this makes me feel. My heart is so wide open."

Gere told the audience that Anderson paved the way for other artists and urged others to adopt her qualities.

The annual award is named after legendary contralto and Philadelphia native Marian Anderson.

By the mid-1930s, Anderson was an international opera sensation but faced segregation in her own country. Public furor erupted when she was not permitted to perform at Washington's Constitution Hall in 1939, and 75,000 people attended a free concert held instead on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Weeks later she became the first black performer in the White House, at the invitation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Anderson died in 1993 at the age of 96.