Courtney B. Vance
Acting
Born: March 12, 1960 (age 66) · Detroit, Michigan, USA
Highest Rated
Biography
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
Terminator Genisys
2015
The Mummy
2017
Isle of Dogs
2018
Final Destination 5
2011
The Hunt for Red October
1990
Project Power
2020
Office Christmas Party
2016
Lilo & Stitch
2025
Space Cowboys
2000
Dangerous Minds
1995
American Crime Story
2016
Ben Is Back
2018
Photos (3)
Movies (57)
Lilo & Stitch
Cobra Bubbles
Isle of Dogs
Narrator (voice)
Terminator Genisys
Miles Dyson
Final Destination 5
Agent Block
The Hunt for Red October
Petty Officer Ronald 'Jonesy' Jones (USS Dallas)
The Mummy
Colonel Greenway
Space Cowboys
Roger Hines
The Preacher's Wife
Reverend Henry Biggs
Office Christmas Party
Walter Davis
Dangerous Minds
Mr. George Grandey
12 Angry Men
Foreman
Project Power
Captain Craine
Ben Is Back
Mr. Beeby
D-Tox
Reverend Jones
The Divide
Delvin
Hamburger Hill
Spc. Abraham 'Doc' Johnson
The Tuskegee Airmen
Lt. Glenn
The Last Supper
Luke
Joyful Noise
Pastor Dale
Beyond the Law
Conroy Price
Extraordinary Measures
Marcus Temple
The Photograph
Louis Morton
Let It Shine
Jacob
Uncorked
Louis
The Adventures of Huck Finn
Jim
Heist 88
Jeremy Horne
Death Wish
Pilot (voice)
Nothing But the Truth
Agent O'Hara
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Sir Lord Keenan Coefield
Hurricane Season
Mr. Randolph
Holy Matrimony
Cooper
Cookie's Fortune
Otis Tucker
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
Other Voices (voice)
Naked City: Justice with a Bullet
Officer James Halloran
Panther
Bobby Seale
In the Line of Duty: Street War
Justice Butler
Girl Dad
2026
The Boys Next Door
Lucien P. Singer
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
Corey (segment "Fences")
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
2003
Naked City: A Killer Christmas
Officer James Halloran
The Fight
Narrator (voice)
Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story
Clarence Brandley
The Piano Lesson
Lymon
The Affair
Travis Holloway
Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers
Reader
The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story
2000
Love and Action in Chicago
Eddie Jones
Percy & Thunder
Wayne 'Thunder' Carter
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Poems
(voice)
Blind Faith
John Williams
Partners of the Heart
Vivien Thomas (voice)
Ambushed
Jerry Robinson
Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad
Thomas
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Nursery Rhymes
(voice)
First Affair
Male Student #2
The Emperor's New Clothes
Scribe (voice)
TV Shows (26)
Law & Order
Mayor's Assistant · 1 eps
Law & Order
Benjamin Greer · 1 eps
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Ron Carver · 111 eps
ER
Russell Banfield · 1 eps
The Closer
Chief Tommy Delk · 3 eps
The Closer
Chief Tommy Delk (archive footage) (uncredited) · 1 eps
Scandal
Clarence Parker · 1 eps
NOVA
Narrator · 1 eps
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Zeus · 1 eps
American Experience
Narrator (voice) · 1 eps
Revenge
Benjamin Brooks · 4 eps
The Wild Thornberrys
Makai (voice) · 1 eps
American Crime Story
Johnnie Cochran · 10 eps
Boston Public
Walter Harrelson · 2 eps
Genius
C.L. Franklin · 8 eps
Masters of Sex
Dr. Charles Hendricks · 3 eps
thirtysomething
1 eps
Picket Fences
Warren Grier · 2 eps
FlashForward
Stanford Wedeck · 22 eps
Lovecraft Country
George Freeman · 3 eps
Grotesquerie
Marshall Tryon · 10 eps
Graceland
Sam Campbell · 1 eps
Any Day Now
1 eps
61st Street
Franklin Roberts · 16 eps
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Lucien P. Singer · 1 eps
Gary the Rat
1 eps
Self / Appearances (17)
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
Self - Guest · 1 eps
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Self - Guest · 1 eps
The View
Self · 1 eps
The View
Self - Guest · 1 eps
The Jennifer Hudson Show
Self · 2 eps
Sherri
Self - Guest · 1 eps
The Tamron Hall Show
Self - Guest · 1 eps
Golden Globe Awards
Self - Audience Member · 1 eps
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
Self · 1 eps
Finding Your Roots
Self · 1 eps
Amend: The Fight for America
Self · 2 eps
On Broadway
Self (archive footage)
W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause
Self
Between the World and Me
Self
The Acting Class
Self
Hollywood's Architect: The Paul R. Williams Story
Self - Narrator
The Groveland Four
Self - Narrator