Ving Rhames

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Date of Birth : May 12th 1959

Rhames first appeared on Broadway in the play The Winter Boys in 1984. Ving continued his rise to fame through his work in soap operas. He found work as a supporting actor, and came to the attention of the general public in Pulp Fiction (1994) as Marsellus Wallace. Rhames also was getting public exposure on television as Peter Benton’s brother on the medical drama ER, a recurring role he filled for 3 seasons. Not long after, Rhames was cast with Tom Cruise as the ace computer hacker Luther Stickell in Brian de Palma’s Mission: Impossible (1996). With solid performances in two of these highly popular productions, his face was now known to moviegoers, and the work offers began rolling in more frequently.

Rhames won a Golden Globe in 1998 for best actor in a TV miniseries for his performance in HBO’s Don King: Only in America. At the ceremony Rhames gave his award to fellow nominee Jack Lemmon, saying “I feel that being an artist is about giving, and I’d like to give this to you.” Lemmon was clearly touched by the gesture as was the celebrity audience who gave Lemmon a standing ovation. Lemmon, who tried unsuccessfully to give the award back to Rhames said it was “…one of the sweetest moments I’ve ever known in my life.” The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced later that they would have a duplicate award prepared for Rhames. That moment was #98 on E!’s 101 Awesome Moments in Entertainment.

Rhames contributed attention-grabbing performances in Striptease (1996 as the wisecracking bodyguard Shad), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), reprised his Luther Stickell role for Mission: Impossible II (2000), playing Johnnie Cochran in American Tragedy (2000), portraying a gay drag queen in the television movie Holiday Heart, contributed his deep bass voice for the character of Cobra Bubbles in Lilo & Stitch (2002) and the subsequent TV series, and played a stoic cop fighting cannibal zombie hordes in Dawn of the Dead (2004) and in the upcoming Day of the Dead 2007 remake. Rhames has also appeared in a series of television commercials for Radio Shack, usually performing with Vanessa L. Williams. A keen fitness and weight-lifting enthusiast, Rhames is also well known for his strong spiritual beliefs and benevolent attitude toward other people.