Ving Rhames

In the year 1994, Rhames married a woman named Valerie Scott. On February 9, 1999, Rhames and Scott divorced.

The following year, in 2000, the star married Deborah Reed. The couple has a son and a daughter. They also have a daughter Tiffany who was born from Reed's previous marriage.

Ving Rhames was born on May 12, 1959 with the name Irving Rameses Rhames in Harlem, New York City. The star’s mother, Reather, was a homemaker and father, Ernest, was an auto mechanic. Irving was named after the NBC journalist Irving R. Levine.

He received his formal education from New York's renowned High School of Performing Arts where he fell in love with acting.

After graduation, he studied drama at SUNY Purchase. There, he met the now-popular star ‘Stanley Tucci’ who gave him the nickname ‘Ving’.

Later on, he earned a scholarship and moved to Juilliard School of Drama and studied classical theater there. In 1983, he earned his bachelor degree of Fine Arts in Drama. After that, he started performing in Shakespeare’s plays in the Park productions.

Ving Rhames first did a television film ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain’ in 1984. Later in the same year, he appeared on Broadway where he played a role in a play named ‘The Winter Boys’.

He then started working in television films and did promising roles on soap operas like ‘Guiding Light’, ‘Another World’ and ‘Miami Vice’.

In 1986, he moved to the big screen and was cast as ‘Jack’ in ‘Native Son’. After a few years, in 1989, he appeared in ‘Brian de Palma Vietnam War saga Casualties of War’ and made a gradual rise afterward.

In 1993, Rhames worked with Matt Dillon in ‘The Saint of Fort Washington’. The next year, in 1994, the star got considerable acclaim for his role as ‘Marsellus Wallace’ in ‘Pulp Fiction’. The Quentin Tarantino movie became a blockbuster.

He played the role of the ace computer hacker Luther Stickell in ‘Mission: Impossible’ in 1996. In this film, he was cast alongside superstar Tom Cruise. The same year he also did ‘Striptease’, playing the role of a wisecracking bodyguard.

Ving Rhames performed in the 1997 TV movie ‘Don King: Only in America’ where he portrayed the main role of Don King. The movie, which tells the story of how King became a famous fight promoter and boxing manager, was a critical success.

In addition to the big screen, Rhames also played major roles on the small screen. He did a medical series ‘ER’ in which he appeared as Peter Benton's brother-in-law, a role he played for three seasons.

In 2008, Rhames portrayed the character of an ex-con in ‘Saving God’. This film highlights the story of a con who after his release from the prison changes completely and takes over his father's old church.

He also gave his contribution to ‘Phantom Punch’ – a biopic of the boxer Sonny Liston.