Ving Rhames - Career

Career

Rhames first appeared on Broadway in the play The Boys of Winter in 1984. Ving continued his rise to fame through his work in soap operas. He found work as a supporting actor. He started out in Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs as Leroy, and came to the attention of the general public by playing the role of Marsellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction (1994). Rhames also was getting public exposure on television as Peter Benton's brother-in-law 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. In 1997, Rhames portrayed the Character of Nathan 'Diamond Dog' Jones in the popular film Con Air.

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. The New York Times lauded Rhames for the act, writing that in doing so he "demonstrated his capacity for abundant generosity".

But Gary Dauphin, writing in Vibe, described Rhames' effort to give away his Golden Globe Award as "a grateful Negro happy to be invited to the party". Sacha Jenkins, in his 2002 book Ego Trip's big book of racism, called it "Best Example of a Negro Thinking Awards Grow on Trees". Riché Richardson wrote in Black masculinity and the U.S. South: from Uncle Tom to gangsta (2007) that the Spike Lee 2000 movie Bamboozled alludes to the 1999 Golden Globes ceremony incident. Richardson writes that when the character "Delacroix" tries similarly to give his own award to his white liberal boss in the movie, he is both reflecting on the Golden Globes Award ceremony incident and epitomizing the submissive-to-white-people Uncle Tom stereotype.

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), as the ex-con boyfriend of Jodie's mother in the John Singleton film Baby Boy, 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 zombie hordes in Dawn of the Dead (2004) and the Day of the Dead 2008 "remake." Rhames has also appeared in a series of television commercials for RadioShack, usually performing with Vanessa L. Williams.

In March 2005, Rhames played the lead role on a new Kojak series, on the USA Network cable channel (and on ITV4 in the UK). The bald head, lollipops, and "Who loves ya, baby?" catchphrase remained intact, but little else remained from the Savalas original.

Rhames 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 four 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. Rhames played a homosexual, possibly also homicidal, firefighter who comes out of the closet in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. He narrates the BET television series American Gangster.

In the 2008 film Saving God he played an ex-con who is released from prison a changed man looking to take over his father's former church congregation in a deteriorating neighborhood. Rhames also stars in Phantom Punch, a biopic of boxer Sonny Liston released directly to DVD as well as The Tournament portraying a fighter out to win a no-rules tournament.

Rhames makes an appearance in Ludacris's song "Southern Gangstas" on his album Theater of the Mind. Rappers Playaz Circle and Rick Ross are also featured on the track.

He is engaged in a lawsuit with the producer of a film titled Red Canvas.

He filmed the movie Submission with Ernie Reyes, Jr. and UFC lightweight contender Gray Maynard and Randy Couture.

Rhames has a cameo appearance in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the fourth installment of the series of movies.