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