Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1281
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Ving Rhames represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 37 years in, and Ving is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Ving Rhames appears in 38 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Ving. Pulp Fiction is the clearest case: a film rated 9.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for action, thriller, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Christopher McQuarrie, Chris Sanders, Doug Liman and others, Ving Rhames helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Pulp Fiction (1994) as Marsellus Wallace · Pulp Fiction (1994) as Marsellus Wallace · The Wild Robot (2024) as Thunderbolt (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #1281 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
38
1989–2026
Career length
37 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.2
Pulp Fiction
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.9
Pulp Fiction
Most frequent director
Christopher McQuarrie
4 films together
Longest collaboration
4×
With Christopher McQuarrie
Most common genre
Action
19 titles
Average runtime
1h 53m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.0
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1990s
7.2 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Entrapment, Bringing Out the Dead, Out of Sight — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.2
Across 11 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
1 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Entrapment, Bringing Out the Dead, Out of Sight.
Most productive era
1990s
11 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.01 film | 7.55 films | 6.31 film | — | 5.91 film |
| Action | — | 6.53 films | 6.46 films | 6.76 films | 5.24 films |
| Thriller | — | 7.74 films | 6.35 films | 6.52 films | 5.24 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.94 films | 6.44 films | 5.81 film | 6.63 films |
| Crime | — | 7.95 films | 6.31 film | — | 6.02 films |
| Romance | — | 6.62 films | 6.11 film | — | — |
| Horror | — | 7.21 film | 6.52 films | — | 6.61 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Lt. Reilly.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1994Pulp Fiction
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026The Mongoose
The current state of the argument, as Tanker.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
38 of 38 films
as Marsellus Wallace
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as Marsellus Wallace
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as Thunderbolt (voice)
Directed by Chris Sanders
as Luther Stickell
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
as Luther Stickell
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 41 titles · 41 total credits · active 1989–2026
The Mongoose
2026 · Tanker
History's Deadliest with Ving Rhames
2026 · TV · Narrator/Self
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
2025 · Luther Stickell
Dope Thief
2025 · TV · Bartram 'Bart' Driscoll
The Wild Robot
2024 · Thunderbolt (voice)
The Instigators
2024 · Frank Toomey
The Garfield Movie
2024 · Otto (voice)
The Locksmith
2023 · Frank
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
2023 · Luther Stickell
Legacy
2023 · TV · Guy Simmons
Wendell & Wild
2022 · Buffalo Belzer (voice)
Mission: Impossible - Fallout
2018 · Luther Stickell
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
2017 · Charlie-27
Father Figures
2017 · Rod Hamilton
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
2015 · Luther Stickell
Soldiers of Fortune
2012 · Grimaud
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
2011 · Luther Stickell (uncredited)
Death Race 2
2010 · Weyland
Surrogates
2009 · Prophet
The Tournament
2009 · Joshua Harlow
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
2009 · Jibby Newsome
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
2007 · Duncan
Mission: Impossible III
2006 · Luther
Dawn of the Dead
2004 · Kenneth
The defining work
#1
Marsellus Wallace
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Performance score9.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Marsellus Wallace gives Ving Rhames a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Marsellus Wallace
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Performance score8.6
Pulp Fiction asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Marsellus Wallace is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Thunderbolt (voice)
The Wild Robot (2024)
Performance score8.1
The Wild Robot asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Thunderbolt (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Luther Stickell
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Performance score7.8
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Luther Stickell is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Marsellus Wallace
Start here. Pulp Fiction is the clearest statement of what Ving Rhames does — accessible, 154 minutes, and rated 9.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Ving at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Same director as Pulp Fiction, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
A deliberate change of key after Pulp Fiction — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Same director as Mission: Impossible - Fallout, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Wild Robot (2024)
Keeps the adventure register of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Christopher McQuarrie
Director
4 films together
Notably Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
Quentin Tarantino
Director
2 films together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Brian De Palma
Director
2 films together
Notably Mission: Impossible
Adrian Lyne
Director
1 film together
Notably Jacob's Ladder
Roger Spottiswoode
Director
1 film together
Notably Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot
Ivan Reitman
Director
1 film together
Notably Dave
Taylor Hackford
Director
1 film together
Notably Bound by Honor
Simon West
Director
1 film together
Notably Con Air
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably Bringing Out the Dead
Jon Amiel
Director
1 film together
Notably Entrapment
John Woo
Director
1 film together
Notably Mission: Impossible II
Ron Shelton
Director
1 film together
Notably Dark Blue
Dean DeBlois
Director
1 film together
Notably Lilo & Stitch
Bobs Gannaway
Director
1 film together
Notably Stitch! The Movie
Zack Snyder
Director
1 film together
Notably Dawn of the Dead
J.J. Abrams
Director
1 film together
Notably Mission: Impossible III
Dennis Dugan
Director
1 film together
Notably I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
Neal Brennan
Director
1 film together
Notably The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
Scott Mann
Director
1 film together
Notably The Tournament
Jonathan Mostow
Director
1 film together
Notably Surrogates
Roel Reiné
Director
1 film together
Notably Death Race 2
Brad Bird
Director
1 film together
Notably Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Lawrence Sher
Director
1 film together
Notably Father Figures
James Gunn
Director
1 film together
Notably Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Henry Selick
Director
1 film together
Notably Wendell & Wild
Nicolas Harvard
Director
1 film together
Notably The Locksmith
Mark Dindal
Director
1 film together
Notably The Garfield Movie
Doug Liman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Instigators
Chris Sanders
Director
1 film together
Notably The Wild Robot
Christopher Walken
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
John Travolta
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Samuel L. Jackson
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Uma Thurman
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Bruce Willis
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Harvey Keitel
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Eric Stoltz
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Tim Roth
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Amanda Plummer
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Maria de Medeiros
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Quentin Tarantino
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Rosanna Arquette
Actor
1 film together
Notably Pulp Fiction
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher McQuarrie
Director
4 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part OneQuentin Tarantino
Director
2 films together · 8.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Pulp FictionBrian De Palma
Director
2 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Mission: ImpossibleChris Sanders
Director
1 film together · 8.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Wild RobotTaylor Hackford
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bound by HonorJames Gunn
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2Dean DeBlois
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lilo & StitchAdrian Lyne
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jacob's LadderBrad Bird
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mission: Impossible - Ghost ProtocolZack Snyder
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dawn of the DeadMark Dindal
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Garfield MovieSimon West
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Con AirJ.J. Abrams
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mission: Impossible IIIIvan Reitman
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DaveHenry Selick
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wendell & WildMartin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bringing Out the DeadBobs Gannaway
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stitch! The MovieJon Amiel
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EntrapmentRon Shelton
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dark BlueJonathan Mostow
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SurrogatesDoug Liman
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The InstigatorsDennis Dugan
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & LarryJohn Woo
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mission: Impossible IIScott Mann
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The TournamentNicolas Harvard
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The LocksmithRoel Reiné
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Death Race 2Lawrence Sher
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Father FiguresNeal Brennan
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell HardRoger Spottiswoode
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stop! Or My Mom Will ShootSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
1 win
1 win · latest 1995
Pulp Fiction
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Pulp Fiction
as Marsellus Wallace
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Entrapment
as Aaron Thibadeaux
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Pulp Fiction
as Marsellus Wallace
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
as Charlie-27
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Pulp Fiction
as Marsellus Wallace
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Ving Rhames has known it for a long time.”
“They call it a Royale with cheese.”
“English, motherf—er, do you speak it?”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.1 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #324 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.2 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Crime, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Quentin Tarantino | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Drama, Quiet performance, Screen presence | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 1994–1994 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Marsellus Wallace — Pulp Fiction | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Pulp Fiction | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Top 250 Movies of All Time, Crime Movies, Top 100 Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
37 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Action Legend
Awarded
19 catalogue titles in action, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Pulp Fiction
as Marsellus Wallace
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Pulp Fiction
as Marsellus Wallace
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Entrapment
as Aaron Thibadeaux
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Jacob's Ladder
as George
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Pulp Fiction
as Marsellus Wallace
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
as Luther Stickell
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Pulp Fiction
as Marsellus Wallace
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Pulp Fiction
as Marsellus Wallace
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 4 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Leonardo DiCaprio
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Have your say
Community
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