What is Ving Rhames' Net Worth and Salary?
Ving Rhames is an American actor who has a net worth of $25 million. Ving Rhames is best known for playing Marsellus Wallace in "Pulp Fiction" (1994) and Luther Stickell in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise (1996-present). Ving made his big screen debut in 1984's "Go Tell It on the Mountain," and he has gone on to appear in more than 130 film and television projects, such as "Jacob's Ladder" (1990), "Entrapment" (1999), and "Don King: Only in America" (1997), which earned him a Golden Globe (that he famously gave to Jack Lemmon). He has appeared on several TV series, including "ER" (1994–1996), "The District" (2002–2003), "Kojak" (2005), "Gravity" (2010), and "Monday Mornings" (2013). Rhames is also known as the voice of "Cobra Bubbles" in Disney's "Lilo & Stitch" (2002) and "Lilo & Stitch: The Series" (2003), and he has lent his voice to the video games "Mission: Impossible – Operation Surma" (2003), "Driver 3" (2004), and "Call of Duty: WWII" (2017).
Early Life
Ving Rhames was born Irving Rameses Rhames on May 12, 1959, in Harlem, New York. His mother, Reather, was a homemaker, and his father, Ernest, worked as an auto mechanic. Ving attended the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan, and after graduating in 1978, he enrolled at the State University of New York at Purchase (also known as SUNY Purchase), where classmate Stanley Tucci gave him the moniker "Ving." Rhames transferred to Juilliard, joining the Drama Division and earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1983.
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Career
In 1984, Ving performed on Broadway in "The Boys of Winter" and played Young Gabriel Grimes in "Go Tell It on the Mountain." The following year, he began a steady string of television appearances, guest-starring on "Miami Vice" (1985; 1987), "Crime Story" (1986), "Tour of Duty" (1987), "Spenser: For Hire" (1988), and "The Equalizer" (1989) and landing a main role on the ABC drama "Men" (1989). In the 1980s, Rhames also filmed the movies "Native Son" (1986), "Patty Hearst" (1988), and "Casualties of War" (1989). Ving appeared in more than 20 films in the 1990s, including "The People Under the Stairs" (1991), "Dave" (1993), "Striptease" (1996), "Rosewood" (1997), and "Out of Sight" (1998).
In 1994, Ving co-starred with John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, and Uma Thurman in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction," which brought in $213.9 million at the box office. That same year he also joined the Tom Cruise rebooted "Mission: Impossible" franchise. Rhames has appeared as Luther Stickell in each of the franchise's movies, which to date have grossed over $4 billion.
Ving earned a Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination for "Entrapment" (1999) and a Satellite Award nomination for "Bringing Out the Dead" (1999). From 1994 to 1996, he appeared as Walter Robbins, the brother-in-law of Dr. Peter Benton on eight episodes of "ER," and he portrayed Don King in the 1997 HBO film "Don King: Only in America" and Johnnie Cochran in the 2000 CBS movie "American Tragedy." Since 2000, Rhames has appeared in more than 50 films, such as "Baby Boy" (2001), "Dawn of the Dead" (2004), "Idlewild" (2006), "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" (2007), and "Surrogates" (2009). He has starred in numerous TV movies as well, earning Black Reel Award nominations for "Holiday Heart" (2000) and "Sins of the Father" (2002). Ving has also appeared in commercials for RadioShack and ADT, and he has been the voice of Arby's ("We have the meats!") since 2014. Ving has served as a narrator for the UFC, and he narrated the team introductions during 2017's Super Bowl LI.
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Personal Life
Ving married Valerie Scott on July 4, 1994, and they divorced in 1999. He went on to wed Deborah Reed on Christmas Day in 2000, and they welcomed daughter Reignbeau that year and son Freedom in 2002; Rhames is also stepfather to Tiffany, Reed's daughter from a previous relationship. Ving and Deborah reportedly separated in 2011. In 1993, Rhames was reunited with his older brother, Junior, a homeless Army veteran who had been estranged from the family, during the filming of "The Saint of Fort Washington." Ving's co-star Matt Dillon was approached by Junior while filming at a homeless shelter, and later that day, Ving saw his brother for the first time in years. In a 1996 interview with "People" magazine, Rhames stated, "I got him out of the shelter that day. I put him up in my apartment and helped him get a job. Now he lives with my parents in a home I bought in Harlem." In 2016, Ving was held at gunpoint by police in his home after a neighbor reported that a "large black man was breaking into the house." The Santa Monica Police Department apologized after recognizing the actor and later organized a city-wide "Meet Your Neighbors" program.
Awards and Nominations
In 1998, Rhames won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television for "Don King: Only in America." His portrayal of King also earned him nominations from the Primetime Emmys, Screen Actors Guild Awards, NAACP Image Awards, Online Film & Television Association, and Satellite Awards. Ving was named Supporting Actor of the Year at the 2000 ShoWest Convention, and he received a DVD Exclusive Award for Best Actor (in a DVD Premiere Movie) for "Animal" in 2006. Ving has been nominated for six Black Reel Awards, eight NAACP Image Awards, and a Blockbuster Entertainment Award, and "Rosewood" earned him a Best Actor nomination at the 1998 Acalpulco Black Film Festival. He shared an Awards Circuit Community Award for Best Cast Ensemble with his "Pulp Fiction" co-stars in 1994, and "Baby Boy" was honored with a Special Mention at the 2000 Locarno International Film Festival.
Real Estate
In 2000, Ving and Deborah paid $4.75 million for a 10,613 square foot, 7-bedroom estate in Los Angeles, then purchased the 5,900 square foot home next door for $6.5 million in 2005. The couple sold the second home for $5.52 million in 2010. Rhames has owned and sold several homes, including a 4,700 square foot Brentwood home that was purchased for $2.5 million and sold for $1.95 million, a 2,120 square foot Mar Vista home that was purchased for $425,000 and sold for $475,000, and a 1,220 square foot La Canada Flintridge home that was purchased for $629,000 and sold for $775,000.
