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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
March 12, 1960
Place of Birth
Detroit, Michigan, USA
Also Known As
- Courtney Bernard Vance
Courtney B. Vance
2.5 Popularity
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
7.2
Cobra Bubbles
Lilo & Stitch
2025
0.0
Death Wish
2024
7.3
Marshall Tryon
Grotesquerie
2024
6.7
Jeremy Horne
Heist 88
2023
5.6
Self
The Jennifer Hudson Show
2022
3.0
Self - Guest
Sherri
2022
6.9
Franklin Roberts
61st Street
2022
7.1
Self
Amend: The Fight for America
2021
7.9
Self
Between the World and Me
2020
7.1
George Freeman
Lovecraft Country
2020
Credits
Lilo & Stitch
as Cobra Bubbles
2025
7.2
Death Wish
2024
0.0
Grotesquerie
as Marshall Tryon
2024
7.3
Heist 88
as Jeremy Horne
2023
6.7
The Jennifer Hudson Show
as Self
2022
5.6
Sherri
as Self - Guest
2022
3.0
61st Street
as Franklin Roberts
2022
6.9
Amend: The Fight for America
as Self
2021
7.1
Between the World and Me
as Self
2020
7.9
Lovecraft Country
as George Freeman
2020
7.1
Project Power
as Captain Craine
2020
6.4
Uncorked
as Louis
2020
6.1
The Photograph
as Louis Morton
2020
6.3
Hollywood's Architect: The Paul R. Williams Story
as Self - Narrator
2020
0.0
On Broadway
as Self (archive footage)
2019
8.7
Tamron Hall
as Self - Guest
2019
4.9
🎬
Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Uncovering America
as Self - Host
2019
0.0
Ben Is Back
as Mr. Beeby
2018
6.6
The Groveland Four
as Self - Narrator
2018
9.0
Isle of Dogs
as Narrator (voice)
2018
7.8
The Mummy
as Colonel Greenway
2017
5.5
Genius
as C.L. Franklin
2017
7.5
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
as Sir Lord Keenan Coefield
2017
6.3
Office Christmas Party
as Walter Davis
2016
5.7
American Crime Story
as Johnnie Cochran
2016
7.6
Terminator Genisys
as Miles Dyson
2015
5.9
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
as Self
2014
4.6
Masters of Sex
as Dr. Charles Hendricks
2013
7.1
Graceland
as Sam Campbell
2013
7.2
Let It Shine
as Jacob
2012
6.9
Scandal
as Clarence Parker
2012
7.2
Finding Your Roots
as Self
2012
6.6
The Divide
as Delvin
2012
5.9
Joyful Noise
as Pastor Dale
2012
6.4
Revenge
as Benjamin Brooks
2011
7.6
Final Destination 5
as Agent Block
2011
6.1
Hurricane Season
as Mr. Randolph
2010
6.6
Extraordinary Measures
as Marcus Temple
2010
6.3
FlashForward
as Stanford Wedeck
2009
7.0
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
as Self - Guest
2009
5.1
Nothing But the Truth
as Agent O'Hara
2008
6.9
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
as Corey (segment "Fences")
2006
0.0
The Closer
as Chief Tommy Delk
2005
7.9
The Closer
as Chief Tommy Delk (archive footage) (uncredited)
2005
7.9
The Fight
as Narrator (voice)
2005
7.0
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
as Other Voices (voice)
2004
7.1
Gary the Rat
2003
6.5
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
2003
4.8
Partners of the Heart
as Vivien Thomas (voice)
2002
6.0
Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story
as Clarence Brandley
2002
0.0
D-Tox
as Reverend Jones
2002
5.6
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
as Ron Carver
2001
7.6
Boston Public
as Walter Harrelson
2000
7.6
Space Cowboys
as Roger Hines
2000
6.4
The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story
2000
0.0
The Acting Class
as Self
2000
5.5
Love and Action in Chicago
as Eddie Jones
1999
4.7
Cookie's Fortune
as Otis Tucker
1999
6.3
Naked City: A Killer Christmas
as Officer James Halloran
1998
2.3
Blind Faith
as John Williams
1998
6.0
Naked City: Justice with a Bullet
as Officer James Halloran
1998
3.0
The Wild Thornberrys
as Makai (voice)
1998
7.0
Any Day Now
1998
7.4
Ambushed
as Jerry Robinson
1998
4.9
12 Angry Men
as Foreman
1997
7.7
The View
as Self
1997
4.3
The View
as Self - Guest
1997
4.3
The Preacher's Wife
as Reverend Henry Biggs
1996
5.8
The Boys Next Door
as Lucien P. Singer
1996
6.6
The Affair
as Travis Holloway
1995
3.8
The Last Supper
as Luke
1995
6.5
The Tuskegee Airmen
as Lt. Glenn
1995
7.1
Dangerous Minds
as Mr. George Grandey
1995
7.0
Panther
as Bobby Seale
1995
6.2
The Piano Lesson
as Lymon
1995
7.2
ER
as Russell Banfield
1994
7.8
Holy Matrimony
as Cooper
1994
5.2
Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad
as Thomas
1994
5.3
Percy & Thunder
as Wayne 'Thunder' Carter
1993
0.0
Beyond the Law
as Conroy Price
1993
6.2
The Adventures of Huck Finn
as Jim
1993
6.2
In the Line of Duty: Street War
as Justice Butler
1992
5.0
Picket Fences
as Warren Grier
1992
7.4
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Poems
as (voice)
1992
0.0
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Nursery Rhymes
as (voice)
1992
0.0
Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers
as Reader
1991
5.7
Law & Order
as Mayor's Assistant
1990
7.4
Law & Order
as Benjamin Greer
1990
7.4
The Hunt for Red October
as Petty Officer Ronald 'Jonesy' Jones (USS Dallas)
1990
7.4
American Experience
as Narrator (voice)
1988
6.9
thirtysomething
1987
6.1
Hamburger Hill
as Spc. Abraham 'Doc' Johnson
1987
6.5
First Affair
as Male Student #2
1983
1.0
NOVA
as Narrator
1974
7.0
Hallmark Hall of Fame
as Lucien P. Singer
1951
8.6
Golden Globe Awards
as Self - Audience Member
1944
7.2