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