Ving Rhames
☼ Born on 12 December 1959, in New York City, New York, USA
Biography
Strikingly featured and muscular American actor Ving Rhames was born Irving Rameses Rhames in Harlem, New York, to Reather, a homemaker, and Ernest Rhames, an auto mechanic. A good student, Ving entered the New York High School of Performing Arts, where he discovered his love of acting. He studied at the Juilliard School of Drama, and began his career in New York theater and in Shakespeare in the Park productions. He first appeared on Broadway in the play "The Winter Boys", in 1984. Also that year, he appeared in front of the cameras for the first time in the TV movie Go Tell It on the Mountain (1985), and was then quickly cast in minor roles in several popular TV shows, including Miami Vice (1984), Tour of Duty (1987) and Crime Story (1986). Ving continued his rise to fame through his work in soap operas.
His big break came in 1994 when Quentin Tarantino cast him as the merciless drug dealer Marsellus Wallace in the mega hit Pulp Fiction (1994). Not long after, director Brian De Palma cast Rhames alongside Tom Cruise as the ace computer hacker Luther Stickell in Mission: Impossible (1996). With solid performances in both these highly popular productions, his face was now well known to moviegoers and the work offers began rolling in more frequently. His next career highlight was playing the lead role in the HBO production of Don King: Only in America (1997). Rhames' performance as the world's most infamous boxing promoter was nothing short of brilliant, and at the 1998 Golden
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Globe Awards he picked up the award for Best Actor in a Miniseries. However, in an incredible display of compassion, he handed over the award to fellow nominee Jack Lemmon, as he felt Lemmon was a more deserving winner. Rhames then made an attention-grabbing performance in Bringing Out the Dead (1999), reprised his role as Luther Stickell in Mission: Impossible II (2000), contributed his deep bass voice for the character of Cobra Bubbles in Lilo & Stitch (2002), and played a burly cop fighting cannibal zombie hordes in Dawn of the Dead (2004). A keen fitness and weightlifting enthusiast, Rhames is also well known for his strong spiritual beliefs and benevolent attitude towards other people.
In a remarkable turn of events whilst filming The Saint of Fort Washington (1993) in New York, he was introduced to a homeless man who turned out to be his long-lost older brother, Junior, who had lost contact with the family after serving in Vietnam. The thrilled Rhames immediately assisted his disheveled brother in getting proper food and clothing and moved him into his own apartment.
In the role of actor
The Wild Robot (27/09/2024)
A robot becomes a surrogate mother for a gosling on an uninhabited island in The Wild Robot. ROZZUM unit 7134 (Lupita Nyong’o), or Roz for short, is a helper robot that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. After learning to communicate with the local wildlife, Roz tries to find a task to complete, though most […]
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (17/07/2023)
Sean Kelly on Movies Podcast Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One Play Episode Pause Episode Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 00:06:41 Subscribe Share Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify RSS Feed Share Link Embed Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:06:41 | Recorded on July […]
Wendell & Wild – TIFF 2022 (28/10/2022)
Two scheming demons seek the help of a 13-year-old girl to escape the underworld in Wendell & Wild. Wendell (Keegan-Michael Key) and Wild (Jordon Peele) are two demon brothers relegated to grooming their father, Buffalo Belzer (Ving Rhames), ruler of the Scream Faire. The demons get their chance to escape when Kat Elliot (Lyric Ross), […]
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (29/07/2018)
Ethan Hunt and his IMF team faces their most impossible mission in Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Following the capture of Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), a new shadowy organization known as The Apostles have formed out of the remains of The Syndicate. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team of Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) […]
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (02/08/2015)
Tom Cruise and team return for a fifth mission, this time against a rogue “anti-IMF” agency. Ethan Hunt (Cruise) discovers proof of the existence of a criminal organization known as The Syndicate, lead by Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). However, since CIA director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) successfully campaigned for the IMF to be disbanded, Hunt is left […]
Wild (10/12/2014)
From director Jean-Marc Vallée (Café de Flore, Dallas Buyers Club) comes this drama based on the memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. Cheryl (Reese Witherspoon) is a young woman desperate to escape her troubled life of drug use and promiscuous sex. As her way to find herself, […]
Piranha 3D (22/08/2010)
It’s been ages since there was a truly gimmicky 3D film was released. Piranha 3D may not have perfect 3D effects, but it was 1000x better than the post-converted afterthoughts studios have been releasing since Avatar hit it big. The film is pretty much what you except it to be: a fairly campy, really gory […]
Surrogates (27/09/2009)
At the very least I can say that Surrogates is a decent sci-fi thriller. I’d say the film obviously has it’s flaws, but it was overall an entertaining film experience. Not really much more I can say. 8/10