Irving Rameses Rhames (born May 12, 1959) is a Golden Globe-winning American actor.

Rhames was born in New York City, New York to African-American parents Reatha, a homemaker, and Ernest Rhames, an auto mechanic. He was named after retired NBC journalist Irving R. Levine and grew up in Harlem, Manhattan. A good student, Ving entered New York's High School of Performing Arts, where he discovered his love of acting. After high school he studied drama at SUNY Purchase where he met fellow actor Stanley Tucci, who gave him his nickname "Ving". He later transferred to Juilliard, where he began his career in New York theater.

Career

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. 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 both these highly popular productions, his face was now well 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.

Rhames then 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), 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 Lynn Williams. A keen fitness and weight-lifting enthusiast, Rhames is also well known for his strong spiritual beliefs and benevolent attitude toward other people.

Rhames also voiced the part of Tobias Jones in the computer game DRIV3R. In 2006, Rhames reprised his role in Mission: Impossible III, making him the only actor besides Tom Cruise to appear in all three Mission: Impossible films, and was announced that he would have a role in the Aquaman based show Mercy Reef. In the integrating of The WB and UPN for the new network, CW, Mercy Reef was not picked up. It is an early contender for a midseason replacement, but currently no plans to air the series have been announced.