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Actor · Acting

Courtney B. Vance

Born 1960-03-12
📍 Detroit, Michigan, USA

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.

Filmography 100

Girl Dad
2026
W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause
as Self
2026
Lilo & Stitch
as Cobra Bubbles
2025
Death Wish
as Pilot (voice)
2024
Grotesquerie
as Marshall Tryon
2024
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
as Zeus
2023
Heist 88
as Jeremy Horne
2023
Sherri
as Self - Guest
2022
The Jennifer Hudson Show
as Self
2022
61st Street
as Franklin Roberts
2022
Amend: The Fight for America
as Self
2021
Between the World and Me
as Self
2020
Lovecraft Country
as George Freeman
2020
Project Power
as Captain Craine
2020
Uncorked
as Louis
2020
The Photograph
as Louis Morton
2020
Hollywood's Architect: The Paul R. Williams Story
as Self - Narrator
2020
On Broadway
as Self (archive footage)
2019
Tamron Hall
as Self - Guest
2019
Ben Is Back
as Mr. Beeby
2018
The Groveland Four
as Self - Narrator
2018
Isle of Dogs
as Narrator (voice)
2018
The Mummy
as Colonel Greenway
2017
Genius
as C.L. Franklin
2017
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
as Sir Lord Keenan Coefield
2017
Office Christmas Party
as Walter Davis
2016
American Crime Story
as Johnnie Cochran
2016
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
as Self - Guest
2015
Terminator Genisys
as Miles Dyson
2015
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
as Self
2014
Masters of Sex
as Dr. Charles Hendricks
2013
Graceland
as Sam Campbell
2013
Let It Shine
as Jacob
2012
Scandal
as Clarence Parker
2012
Finding Your Roots
as Self
2012
Joyful Noise
as Pastor Dale
2012
The Divide
as Delvin
2012
Revenge
as Benjamin Brooks
2011
Final Destination 5
as Agent Block
2011
Hurricane Season
as Mr. Randolph
2010
Extraordinary Measures
as Marcus Temple
2010
FlashForward
as Stanford Wedeck
2009
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
as Self - Guest
2009
Nothing But the Truth
as Agent O'Hara
2008
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
as Corey (segment "Fences")
2006
The Closer
as Chief Tommy Delk
2005
The Closer
as Chief Tommy Delk (archive footage) (uncredited)
2005
The Fight
as Narrator (voice)
2005
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
as Other Voices (voice)
2004
Gary the Rat
2003
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
2003
Partners of the Heart
as Vivien Thomas (voice)
2002
Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story
as Clarence Brandley
2002
D-Tox
as Reverend Jones
2002
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
as Ron Carver
2001
Boston Public
as Walter Harrelson
2000
Space Cowboys
as Roger Hines
2000
The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story
2000
The Acting Class
as Self
2000
Love and Action in Chicago
as Eddie Jones
1999
Cookie's Fortune
as Otis Tucker
1999
Naked City: A Killer Christmas
as Officer James Halloran
1998
Blind Faith
as John Williams
1998
Naked City: Justice with a Bullet
as Officer James Halloran
1998
The Wild Thornberrys
as Makai (voice)
1998
Any Day Now
1998
Ambushed
as Jerry Robinson
1998
12 Angry Men
as Foreman
1997
The View
as Self
1997
The View
as Self - Guest
1997
The Preacher's Wife
as Reverend Henry Biggs
1996
The Boys Next Door
as Lucien P. Singer
1996
The Affair
as Travis Holloway
1995
The Last Supper
as Luke
1995
The Tuskegee Airmen
as Lt. Glenn
1995
Dangerous Minds
as Mr. George Grandey
1995
Panther
as Bobby Seale
1995
The Piano Lesson
as Lymon
1995
ER
as Russell Banfield
1994
Holy Matrimony
as Cooper
1994
Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad
as Thomas
1994
Percy & Thunder
as Wayne 'Thunder' Carter
1993
Beyond the Law
as Conroy Price
1993
The Adventures of Huck Finn
as Jim
1993
In the Line of Duty: Street War
as Justice Butler
1992
Picket Fences
as Warren Grier
1992
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Poems
as (voice)
1992
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Nursery Rhymes
as (voice)
1992
The Emperor's New Clothes
as Scribe (voice)
1992
Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers
as Reader
1991
Law & Order
as Mayor's Assistant
1990
Law & Order
as Benjamin Greer
1990
The Hunt for Red October
as Petty Officer Ronald 'Jonesy' Jones (USS Dallas)
1990
American Experience
as Narrator (voice)
1988
thirtysomething
1987
Hamburger Hill
as Spc. Abraham 'Doc' Johnson
1987
First Affair
as Male Student #2
1983
NOVA
as Narrator
1974
Hallmark Hall of Fame
as Lucien P. Singer
1951
Golden Globe Awards
as Self - Audience Member
1944