Name
Courtney B. Vance
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1960-03-12 (66 years old)
Place of Birth
Detroit, Michigan, USA
Biography
Courtney Bernard Vance (born March 12, 1960) is an American actor. Vance started his career on the Broadway stage in the original productions of August Wilson's Fences in 1985, John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation in 1990 and Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy in 2013 for which he won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He is known for his roles in films such as Hamburger Hill (1987), The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Preacher's Wife (1996), Cookie's Fortune (1999), Terminator Genisys (2015), and Isle of Dogs (2018).
Vance is also known for work on television on shows such as Law & Order: Criminal Intent, where he portrayed Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver. He also guest-starred on Law & Order, Picket Fences, The Closer, Revenge, Scandal, and Masters of Sex. He won acclaim for his portrayal of Johnnie Cochran in the FX limited series The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016) for which he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. He recently appeared in the HBO television film, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017), National Geographic's limited series Genius: Aretha (2020), and the HBO drama series Lovecraft Country (2020) the latter of which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.
He has been married to actress Angela Bassett since 1997. Vance is on the Board of Directors for The Actors Center in New York City, and is an active supporter of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. In 2019, Vance was appointed as the President of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation.
Known For
7.189
The wildly funny and touching story of a lonely Hawaiian girl and the fugitive alien who h...
5.959
The year is 2029. John Connor, leader of the resistance continues the war against the mach...
7.845
In the future, an outbreak of canine flu leads the mayor of a Japanese city to banish all ...
6.157
Death is just as omnipresent as ever, and is unleashed after one man’s premonition saves...
7.384
A new technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S...
6.982
Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but under...
6.4
Frank Corvin, ‘Hawk’ Hawkins, Jerry O'Neill and ‘Tank’ Sullivan were hotdog member...
7.69
During the trial of a man accused of his father's murder, a lone juror takes a stand again...
6.423
An ex-soldier, a teen and a cop collide in New Orleans as they hunt for the source behind ...
- 1991 Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers as Reader
- 1990 The Hunt for Red October as Petty Officer Ronald 'Jonesy' Jones (USS Dallas)
- 1994 Holy Matrimony as Cooper
- 1987 Hamburger Hill as Spc. Abraham 'Doc' Johnson
- 2002 D-Tox as Reverend Jones
- 2000 Space Cowboys as Roger Hines
- 1996 The Preacher's Wife as Reverend Henry Biggs
- 1995 The Tuskegee Airmen as Lt. Glenn
- 1998 12 Angry Men as Foreman
- 1999 Cookie's Fortune as Otis Tucker
- 2010 Extraordinary Measures as Marcus Temple
- 1995 The Last Supper as Luke
- 1995 Dangerous Minds as Mr. George Grandey
- 1993 The Adventures of Huck Finn as Jim
- 1995 Panther as Bobby Seale
- 2008 Nothing but the Truth as Agent O'Hara
- 2012 Joyful Noise as Pastor Dale
- 2012 The Divide as Delvin
- 2025 Lilo & Stitch as Cobra Bubbles
- 2003 Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
- 1993 Beyond the Law as Conroy Price
- 1996 The Boys Next Door as Lucien P. Singer
- 2019 On Broadway as Self (archive footage)
- 1995 The Affair as Travis Holloway
- 1998 Ambushed as Jerry Robinson
- 2012 Let It Shine as Jacob
- 2023 Heist 88 as Jeremy Horne
- 1998 Blind Faith as John Williams
- 1992 Nonsense and Lullabyes: Nursery Rhymes as (voice)
- 1992 Nonsense and Lullabyes: Poems as (voice)
- 1993 Percy & Thunder as Wayne 'Thunder' Carter
- 1998 Naked City: Justice with a Bullet as Officer James Halloran
- 1994 Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad as Thomas
- 2002 Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story as Clarence Brandley
- 1998 Naked City: A Killer Christmas as Officer James Halloran
- 2018 The Groveland Four as Self - Narrator
- 2015 Terminator Genisys as Miles Dyson
- 2020 Hollywood's Architect: The Paul R. Williams Story as Self - Narrator
- 2011 Final Destination 5 as Agent Block
- 2016 Office Christmas Party as Walter Davis
- 2017 The Mummy as Colonel Greenway
- 2018 Isle of Dogs as Narrator (voice)
- 2017 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks as Sir Lord Keenan Coefield
- 1992 In the Line of Duty: Street War as Justice Butler
- 2018 Ben Is Back as Mr. Beeby
- 2005 The Fight as Narrator (voice)
- 1995 The Piano Lesson as Lymon
- 1999 Love and Action in Chicago as Eddie Jones
- 2006 The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays as Corey (segment "Fences")
- 2020 Project Power as Captain Craine
- 2004 Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson as Other Voices (voice)
- 2002 Partners of the Heart as Vivien Thomas (voice)
- 2000 The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story
- 2020 The Photograph as Louis Morton
- 2020 Uncorked as Louis
- 2020 Between the World and Me as Self
- 2010 Hurricane Season as Mr. Randolph
- 2000 The Acting Class as Self
- 1983 First Affair as Male Student #2
- 2019 Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Uncovering America as Self - Host
- 2024 Death Wish as Pilot (voice)
- 1992 The Emperor's New Clothes as Scribe (voice)
- 2026 W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause as Self
- 2026 Girl Dad
- Soon The Spectacular Spider-Man as Kigsley
- 2000 Boston Public ( 2 episodes ) as Walter Harrelson
- 1990 Law & Order ( 1 episode ) as Mayor's Assistant
- 1987 thirtysomething ( 1 episode )
- 1997 The View ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1998 Any Day Now ( 1 episode )
- 1974 NOVA ( 1 episode ) as Narrator
- 2012 Finding Your Roots ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2001 Law & Order: Criminal Intent ( 111 episodes ) as Ron Carver
- 1997 The View ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 1951 Hallmark Hall of Fame ( 1 episode ) as Lucien P. Singer
- 1994 ER ( 1 episode ) as Russell Banfield
- 2009 FlashForward ( 22 episodes ) as Stanford Wedeck
- 1998 The Wild Thornberrys ( 1 episode ) as Makai (voice)
- 2013 Graceland ( 1 episode ) as Sam Campbell
- 2011 Revenge ( 4 episodes ) as Benjamin Brooks
- 2016 American Crime Story ( 10 episodes ) as Johnnie Cochran
- 2019 Tamron Hall ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 1988 American Experience ( 1 episode ) as Narrator (voice)
- 1990 Law & Order ( 1 episode ) as Benjamin Greer
- 2022 Sherri ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 2020 Lovecraft Country ( 3 episodes ) as George Freeman
- 2013 Masters of Sex ( 3 episodes ) as Dr. Charles Hendricks
- 2024 Grotesquerie ( 10 episodes ) as Marshall Tryon
- 2012 Scandal ( 1 episode ) as Clarence Parker
- 2009 Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 2021 Amend: The Fight for America ( 2 episodes ) as Self
- 2022 61st Street ( 16 episodes ) as Franklin Roberts
- 2017 Genius ( 8 episodes ) as C.L. Franklin
- 2005 The Closer ( 3 episodes ) as Chief Tommy Delk
- 2005 The Closer ( 1 episode ) as Chief Tommy Delk (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 2014 Variety Studio: Actors on Actors ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2022 The Jennifer Hudson Show ( 2 episodes ) as Self
- 1944 Golden Globe Awards ( 1 episode ) as Self - Audience Member
- 2003 Gary the Rat ( 1 episode )
- 1992 Picket Fences ( 2 episodes ) as Warren Grier
- 2023 Percy Jackson and the Olympians ( 1 episode ) as Zeus
- 2015 The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
