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Irving "Ving" Rhames (born May 12 1959 in New York
City, New York) is an :United_States|American
actor.

Rhames grew up in Harlem, Manhattan. A good
student, Ving entered the New York High School of
Performing Arts, where he discovered his love of
acting. After high school he studied at the
Juilliard Drama School, and began his career in
New York theater. At Juilliard, he was a roommate
of fellow actor Stanley Tucci.

He 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 alongside Tom Cruise as the ace
computer hacker Luther Stickell in Brian de
Palma's Mission: Impossible (movie)|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 the late 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.

The talented actor then contributed
attention-grabbing performances in Bringing Out
the Dead (1999), reprised his Luther Stickell role
for 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). 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 currently stars as the title detective in
the USA Network's 2005 TV series Kojak, loosely
based on the '70s show of the same name. During a
press conference in Hollywood for the new series,
American critics criticized Rhames (who is Black)
for playing a role which orginally potrayed by the
late Telly Savalas, a Greek-American character.
The actor was reportedly brought to tears by the
harsh criticism.

==External link==
*imdb name|name=Ving Rhames|id=0000609