Courtney B. Vance
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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
Credits
Lilo & Stitch (2025)
as Cobra Bubbles
Terminator Genisys (2015)
as Miles Dyson
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
as Petty Officer Ronald 'Jonesy' Jones (USS Dallas)
Final Destination 5 (2011)
as Agent Block
Isle of Dogs (2018)
as Narrator (voice)
The Mummy (2017)
as Colonel Greenway
Office Christmas Party (2016)
as Walter Davis
Dangerous Minds (1995)
as Mr. George Grandey
Space Cowboys (2000)
as Roger Hines
Extraordinary Measures (2010)
as Marcus Temple
12 Angry Men (1997)
as Foreman
Project Power (2020)
as Captain Craine
Joyful Noise (2012)
as Pastor Dale
The Divide (2012)
as Delvin
Hamburger Hill (1987)
as Spc. Abraham 'Doc' Johnson
D-Tox (2002)
as Reverend Jones
Nothing but the Truth (2008)
as Agent O'Hara
Ben Is Back (2018)
as Mr. Beeby
The Preacher's Wife (1996)
as Reverend Henry Biggs
The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993)
as Jim
Let It Shine (2012)
as Jacob
The Tuskegee Airmen (1995)
as Lt. Glenn
Panther (1995)
as Bobby Seale
The Last Supper (1995)
as Luke
Girl Dad (2026)
Actor
Beyond the Law (1993)
as Conroy Price
Holy Matrimony (1994)
as Cooper
Heist 88 (2023)
as Jeremy Horne
The Photograph (2020)
as Louis Morton
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017)
as Sir Lord Keenan Coefield
Hurricane Season (2010)
as Mr. Randolph
Uncorked (2020)
as Louis
Cookie's Fortune (1999)
as Otis Tucker
The Affair (1995)
as Travis Holloway
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays (2006)
as Corey (segment "Fences")
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2004)
as Other Voices (voice)
Death Wish (2024)
as Pilot (voice)
Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Uncovering America (2019)
as Self - Host
On Broadway (2019)
as Self (archive footage)
Between the World and Me (2020)
as Self
W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause (2026)
as Self
Blind Faith (1998)
as John Williams
The Acting Class (2000)
as Self
Ambushed (1998)
as Jerry Robinson
Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story (2002)
as Clarence Brandley
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Nursery Rhymes (1992)
as (voice)
The Boys Next Door (1996)
as Lucien P. Singer
Naked City: A Killer Christmas (1998)
as Officer James Halloran
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives (2003)
Actor
In the Line of Duty: Street War (1992)
as Justice Butler
The Piano Lesson (1995)
as Lymon
The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story (2000)
Actor
Naked City: Justice with a Bullet (1998)
as Officer James Halloran
Hollywood's Architect: The Paul R. Williams Story (2020)
as Self - Narrator
Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers (1991)
as Reader
Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad (1994)
as Thomas
First Affair (1983)
as Male Student #2
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Poems (1992)
as (voice)
Partners of the Heart (2002)
as Vivien Thomas (voice)
The Fight (2005)
as Narrator (voice)
Percy & Thunder (1993)
as Wayne 'Thunder' Carter
The Groveland Four (2018)
as Self - Narrator
Love and Action in Chicago (1999)
as Eddie Jones
The Emperor's New Clothes (1992)
as Scribe (voice)