Portrait of Ving Rhames

Birthday profile

Ving Rhames

Ving Rhames, American actor

Born
May 12, 1959
Age in 2026
67
Zodiac sign
Taurus
Birth year
1959

About Ving Rhames

Irving Rameses Rhames ( RAYMZ; born May 12, 1959) is an American actor. Born and raised in Harlem, New York City, he studied drama at SUNY Purchase before transferring to the Juilliard School, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1983. After early stage work in Shakespeare and contemporary plays, he made his screen debut in 1985 and gained attention through roles in Jacob's Ladder (1990), The People Under the Stairs (1991), and as Marsellus Wallace in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994). Rhames achieved further recognition as Luther Stickell in the Mission: Impossible film series, appearing in all eight installments. His other notable work includes Con Air (1997), Rosewood (1997), Out of Sight (1998), Dawn of the Dead (2004), and voicing Cobra Bubbles in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch (2002). In 1998, he won a Golden Globe for portraying boxing promoter Don King in Don King: Only in America, memorably giving the award to fellow nominee Jack Lemmon. Alongside film and television, Rhames has worked extensively in theater, voice acting, and commercial narration. Rhames won a Golden Globe in 1998 for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film in HBO's Don King: Only in America (1997). One of Rhames' junior high school teachers praised his poetry reading.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Ving Rhames timeline

  1. After early stage work in Shakespeare and contemporary plays, he made his screen debut in 1985 and gained attention through roles in Jacob's Ladder (1990), The People Under the Stairs (1991), and as Marsellus Wallace in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994).
  2. Rhames won a Golden Globe in 1998 for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film in HBO's Don King: Only in America (1997).
  3. In 1998, he won a Golden Globe for portraying boxing promoter Don King in Don King: Only in America, memorably giving the award to fellow nominee Jack Lemmon.

The world when Ving Rhames was born

Ving Rhames was born in 1959. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1959

  • #1 song"Mack the Knife" – Bobby Darin
  • Top movieBen-Hur
  • Top TV showGunsmoke
  • Best-selling bookGoldfinger – Ian Fleming

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentIngemar Johansson knocks out Floyd Patterson for heavyweight title
  • Top headlineAlaska and Hawaii become the 49th and 50th US states
  • Technology milestoneMicrochip (integrated circuit) invented
  • Defining fadBarbie dolls
  • Notable inventionBarbie doll
  • World population2.98 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championLos Angeles Dodgers (World Series)
  • Also wonBoston Celtics (NBA)
  • U.S. population177.1M

1959 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Ving Rhames's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19592026
Gas$0.31$3.45/gal
Average home$12,400$435,000
Average income$7,000$67,500
Minimum wage$1.00$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.69$11.95
Postage stamp$0.04$0.73
Population177.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.