Personal details
- Birth Date: 1959-05-12
- Height: 6′ (1.83 m)
- Birth Location: New York City, New York, USA
- Children: (3 children) Reign Beau Rhames
- Children: (divorced) Reign Beau Rhames
- Parents: Reather Rhames
- Professions: Actor, Producer, Writer
Ving Rhames, born Irving Rameses Rhames in the heart of Harlem, grew up with a homemade mix of grit and talent—his mom worked at home, his dad fixed cars. Dude wasn’t just another face in the crowd, either. Smart kid, he lands a spot at New York’s High School of Performing Arts, and that’s where the acting bug bites him hard. Next stop: Juilliard. Not exactly a weekend drama club, you know? He dives into New York theater, even does some Shakespeare in the Park (which, honestly, is kind of a rite of passage if you’re a real actor in the city). He gets his Broadway debut in “The Winter Boys” back in '84, and not long after, he’s showing up on TV—Miami Vice, Tour of Duty, Crime Story, you name it. Bit parts at first, but Ving’s building something. Soap operas, too, just grinding. Then, boom—1994 rolls around and Quentin Tarantino hands him the role of Marsellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction. Instantly unforgettable. Suddenly, everyone knows who he is. That opens the floodgates: Mission: Impossible rolls in, and he’s Luther Stickell, the coolest hacker in the room. He absolutely kills it as Don King in HBO’s Only in America, even gives his Golden Globe to Jack Lemmon—talk about class. Voice work in Lilo & Stitch, zombie-fighting in Dawn of the Dead, the guy’s all over the place. On top of that, he’s super into fitness and has a reputation for being genuinely kind, spiritual, and just… decent. And yeah, wild story—he found his long-lost brother while filming in New York and helped him get back on his feet. Ving’s story? It’s got heart.
Back in '93, while shooting The Saint of Fort Washington somewhere in New York, Ving Rhames got hit with a wild surprise—he bumped into his own brother, Junior, just out of the blue. Junior had been off the grid for years, battling his own demons since Vietnam, basically living on the streets. The family hadn’t heard a peep from him in ages. Imagine being on a film set and out pops your long-lost brother, who’s been struggling hardcore. That sort of thing doesn’t happen every day. This wasn’t some planned family reunion either—it was just pure luck, or maybe fate messing around. Rhames and Junior hadn’t seen each other in forever, so you can bet that moment was heavy. It’s the kind of story you hear and think, “No way, that can’t be real.” But it was, right in the middle of the chaos of movie-making in NYC. Wild, right?
So, I finally took the plunge and snagged myself a new house—yeah, wild, right? But honestly, every time I glance at the price tags flying around in Hollywood, I can’t help but roll my eyes. It’s bonkers how much cash gets tossed at movies these days, while the world’s out here juggling all sorts of actual problems. I mean, c’mon, how does that even make sense? The film industry just keeps ramping up budgets like there’s no tomorrow, piling on the spectacle, and for what? Eventually, the bubble’s gotta pop. You can’t just keep spending like that forever without something snapping. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good blockbuster as much as the next person, but maybe it’s time for folks behind the scenes to get a reality check. At some point, people are gonna start asking some tough questions about where all this money’s going.
May 12, 1959
6′ (1.83 m)
Konidela Ram Charan
New York City, New York, USA
Yes, Reign Beau Rhames
Reather Rhames and Surekha
66 years old