Courtney B. Vance
Photoplayd Industry Rating
Not enough rated films yet to compute a weighted score.
Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
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 Mummy (2017)
as Colonel Greenway
Final Destination 5 (2011)
as Agent Block
Isle of Dogs (2018)
as Narrator (voice)
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
as Petty Officer Ronald 'Jonesy' Jones (USS Dallas)
12 Angry Men (1997)
as Foreman
Space Cowboys (2000)
as Roger Hines
Dangerous Minds (1995)
as Mr. George Grandey
The Tuskegee Airmen (1995)
as Lt. Glenn
Project Power (2020)
as Captain Craine
The Divide (2012)
as Delvin
Office Christmas Party (2016)
as Walter Davis
Let It Shine (2012)
as Jacob
Hamburger Hill (1987)
as Spc. Abraham 'Doc' Johnson
Hollywood's Architect: The Paul R. Williams Story (2020)
as Self - Narrator
D-Tox (2002)
as Reverend Jones
The Preacher's Wife (1996)
as Reverend Henry Biggs
Ben Is Back (2018)
as Mr. Beeby
The Piano Lesson (1995)
as Lymon
Holy Matrimony (1994)
as Cooper
Heist 88 (2023)
as Jeremy Horne
Joyful Noise (2012)
as Pastor Dale
Extraordinary Measures (2010)
as Marcus Temple
Nothing But the Truth (2008)
as Agent O'Hara
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017)
as Sir Lord Keenan Coefield
Beyond the Law (1993)
as Conroy Price
Hurricane Season (2010)
as Mr. Randolph
On Broadway (2019)
as Self (archive footage)
The Photograph (2020)
as Louis Morton
Panther (1995)
as Bobby Seale
The Last Supper (1995)
as Luke
Cookie's Fortune (1999)
as Otis Tucker
The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993)
as Jim
Uncorked (2020)
as Louis
The Affair (1995)
as Travis Holloway
Blind Faith (1998)
as John Williams
The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story (2000)
Actor
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2004)
as Other Voices (voice)
Ambushed (1998)
as Jerry Robinson
Naked City: Justice with a Bullet (1998)
as Officer James Halloran
The Boys Next Door (1996)
as Lucien P. Singer
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives (2003)
Actor
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays (2006)
as Corey (segment "Fences")
Death Wish (2024)
as Pilot (voice)
The Fight (2005)
as Narrator (voice)
Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers (1991)
as Reader
In the Line of Duty: Street War (1992)
as Justice Butler
Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story (2002)
as Clarence Brandley
First Affair (1983)
as Male Student #2
The Acting Class (2000)
as Self
Partners of the Heart (2002)
as Vivien Thomas (voice)
Percy & Thunder (1993)
as Wayne 'Thunder' Carter
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Nursery Rhymes (1992)
as (voice)
Girl Dad (2026)
Actor
Love and Action in Chicago (1999)
as Eddie Jones
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Poems (1992)
as (voice)
Between the World and Me (2020)
as Self
Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Uncovering America (2019)
as Self - Host
Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad (1994)
as Thomas
The Groveland Four (2018)
as Self - Narrator
Naked City: A Killer Christmas (1998)
as Officer James Halloran
W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause (2026)
as Self
The Emperor's New Clothes (1992)
as Scribe (voice)