Irving Rameses Rhames (born May 12, 1959) is an American stage and screen actor. He is best known for his starring role as Luther Stickell in the Mission: Impossible film series. He also appeared in Jacob\'s Ladder (1990), Striptease (1996), Pulp Fiction (1994), Don King: Only in America (1997), Rosewood (1997), Con Air (1997), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Piranha 3D (2010), and Father Figures (2017). He voiced Cobra Bubbles in the animated film Lilo & Stitch (2002). Rhames is a Golden Globe Award winner, as well as an Emmy Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominee.\n', '

Rhames was born in Harlem, New York City, the son of Reather, a homemaker, and Ernest Rhames, an auto mechanic. His parents were raised as sharecroppers in South Carolina. He was named after the late NBC journalist, Irving R. Levine.\n', '

He entered New York\'s High School of Performing Arts, where he discovered his love of acting. After high school, he studied drama at SUNY Purchase, where fellow acting student Stanley Tucci gave him his nickname "Ving". Rhames later transferred to the Juilliard School\'s Drama Division (Group 12: 1979–1983) where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1983.\n', '

Return to Ving Rhames Autograph Profile