Ving Rhames Biography
Born: May 12, 1959
Birth Name: Irving Rhames
Date of Birth: May 12, 1959
"I don't give Hollywood the power to limit me," says Rhames. " Only God can limit me."
Rhames grew up in what he terms a "poverty-stricken neighborhood" but, as a kid, he says, "I didn't really know I was a deprived poverty-stricken child until the media made me aware of it." In any case, when acting came calling, Rhames followed the voice and ended up a working actor for years, even if no one knew who he was.
He's an accomplished stage actor who's appeared on Broadway and he also did the struggling actor thing of getting a job in the soap opera Another World, the same soap that once provided an income for such stars such as Morgan Freeman, Gates McFadden, Charles Durning, Ray Liotta and Kyra Sedgwick.
Although relatively unknown before Pulp Fiction, Rhames says, "I don't believe in breakthroughs. Pulp Fiction was just part of the process to get me where I am now." He has also made several guest appearances on television series, including a four episode stint on The District as Attorney General Trot Hatcher. But it was his performance in the TV movie Don King: Only in America (1997) that won him a Golden Globe. In 2000, he was named Supporting Actor of the Year at the ShoWest Convention.
He continued to earn roles in major motion pictures in the early 2010s, including Mission: Impossible III (2005), Day of the Dead (2008), Piranha 3D (2010), Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011), Piranha 3DD (2012), Won't Back Down (2012), and Force of Execution (2013).
Ving reprised his role as Luther Stickell in Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation, and once again in in Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018). He also appeared in the biographical drama A Sunday Horse (2016) and the comedy Father Figures (2017), the latter of which stars Owen Wilson and Ed Helms.