Courtney B. Vance
Date of birth: 1960-03-12
Place of birth: Detroit, Michigan, USA
Known for: Acting
Also known as: Courtney Bernard Vance
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.
Movie Credits
Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers
1991-01-01
Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers is a 1991 American short documentary film directed by Bill
The Hunt for Red October
1990-03-02
A new technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast un
Holy Matrimony
1994-04-08
A young Hutterite boy must marry his late brother's wife who comes from outside the community.
Hamburger Hill
1987-08-07
The men of Bravo Company are facing a battle that's all uphill… up Hamburger Hill. Fourteen war-wear
D-Tox
2002-01-04
A disgraced FBI agent with a drinking problem joins nine other troubled law enforcement officers at
Space Cowboys
2000-08-04
Frank Corvin, ‘Hawk’ Hawkins, Jerry O'Neill and ‘Tank’ Sullivan were hotdog members of Project Daeda
The Preacher's Wife
1996-12-13
Good-natured Reverend Henry Biggs finds that his marriage to choir mistress Julia is flagging, due t
The Tuskegee Airmen
1995-08-25
During the Second World War, a special project is begun by the US Army Air Corps to integrate Africa
12 Angry Men
1997-08-17
During the trial of a man accused of his father's murder, a lone juror takes a stand against the gui
Cookie's Fortune
1999-03-24
Conflict arises in the small town of Holly Springs when an old woman's death causes a variety of rea
Extraordinary Measures
2010-01-21
Working-class father John Crowley is finally on the fast track to corporate success when his two you
The Last Supper
1995-09-08
A group of idealistic but frustrated liberals succumb to the temptation of murdering right-wing pund
Dangerous Minds
1995-08-11
Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving
The Adventures of Huck Finn
1993-04-02
Mischievous Huck Finn is unnerved when his father, reemerging after years away, kidnaps him in an at
Panther
1995-05-03
In this sprawling, fictionalized history of the Black Panthers, 1960s Oakland becomes a war zone as
Nothing But the Truth
2008-12-19
When reporter Rachel Armstrong writes a story that reveals the identity of a covert CIA operative, t
Joyful Noise
2012-01-13
G.G. Sparrow faces off with her choir's newly appointed director, Vi Rose Hill, over the group's dir
The Divide
2012-01-13
Survivors of a nuclear attack are grouped together for days in the basement of their apartment build
Lilo & Stitch
2025-05-17
The wildly funny and touching story of a lonely Hawaiian girl and the fugitive alien who helps to me
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
2003-02-10
When the Civil War ended in 1865, more than four million slaves were set free. Over 70 years later,
Beyond the Law
1993-04-22
Dan Saxon is an undercover cop who infiltrates a biker gang to nail the scum behind a drug-smuggling
The Boys Next Door
1996-02-04
Kind-hearted social worker Jack Palmer feels guilty about not spending enough time with his wife due
On Broadway
2019-10-12
An all-star cast tells the inside story of the Broadway theater, and how it came back from the brink
The Affair
1995-10-14
A black soldier in World War II England begins an affair with a white woman whose husband is a soldi
Ambushed
1998-06-20
Jim Natter, the leader of a violent Ku Klux Klan lodge, is shot dead. His teenage son Eric Natter is
Let It Shine
2012-06-15
A young teenage rapper must use his musical talent to help his friend out and win the girl of his dr
Heist 88
2023-10-01
A criminal mastermind recruits a group of young bank employees to steal 80 million dollars in one of
Blind Faith
1998-11-23
In 1957, black lawyer John Williams has to defend his nephew Charlie, who is accused of strangling a
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Nursery Rhymes
1992-02-01
This animated anthology is comprised of eighteen updated nursery rhymes and features such celebrity
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Poems
1992-06-10
This animated anthology is comprised of eighteen updated nursery rhymes and features such celebrity
Percy & Thunder
1993-09-07
A veteran trainer takes a promising fighter under his wing and lives his dreams through his protégé.
Naked City: Justice with a Bullet
1998-10-04
A pair of taxi-driving NYC detectives take up the case of tourists who are robbed of their money and
Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad
1994-02-19
A number of slaves risk their lives to escape their masters with their only help coming from the fam
Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story
2002-04-21
Based on the true story of Clarence Brandley, a black man wrongly accused in 1980 of the murder of a
Naked City: A Killer Christmas
1998-12-13
An ambitious reporter gets in the way of two cops assigned to investigate a serial killer who become
The Groveland Four
2018-06-25
July, 1949: four young black men are wrongly accused of rape by a 17-year-old farm wife in rural Lak
Terminator Genisys
2015-06-23
The year is 2029. John Connor, leader of the resistance continues the war against the machines. At t
Hollywood's Architect: The Paul R. Williams Story
2020-02-06
Nicknamed “Architect to the Stars,” African American architect Paul R. Williams had an incredible li
Final Destination 5
2011-08-12
Death is just as omnipresent as ever, and is unleashed after one man’s premonition saves a group of
Office Christmas Party
2016-11-25
When Carol Vanstone, CEO of the technology company Zenotek, expresses her intention to close the Chi
The Mummy
2017-06-06
Though safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen whose destin
Isle of Dogs
2018-03-23
In the future, an outbreak of canine flu leads the mayor of a Japanese city to banish all dogs to an
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
2017-04-22
An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are
In the Line of Duty: Street War
1992-10-25
In this gritty cops-and-crooks drama, two detectives hunt a gang leader suspected of murdering a New
Ben Is Back
2018-12-05
19-year-old Ben Burns unexpectedly returns home to his family's suburban home on Christmas Eve morni
The Fight
2005-01-24
Explores the famous 1938 heavyweight bout between German Max Schmeling and American Joe Louis and fi
The Piano Lesson
1995-02-05
1930's Pittsburgh, a brother comes home to claim "my half of the piano", a family heirloom; but his
Love and Action in Chicago
1999-09-15
Just when covert assassin Eddie Jones decides to ditch his dangerous job to settle down with his gir
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
2006-05-02
The Great White Way comes into your living room via this disc of rare performances from some of Broa
Project Power
2020-08-14
An ex-soldier, a teen and a cop collide in New Orleans as they hunt for the source behind a dangerou
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
2004-09-04
The story of Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight boxing champion.
Partners of the Heart
2002-06-01
Recounts the extraordinary segregation-era partnership between two surgeons--one black and one white
The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story
2000-05-31
Documents the race riot of 1921 and the destruction of the African-American community of Greenwood i
The Photograph
2020-02-14
When famed photographer Christina Eames dies unexpectedly, she leaves her estranged daughter, Mae, h
Uncorked
2020-03-27
Elijah must balance his dream of becoming a master sommelier with his father's expectations that he
Between the World and Me
2020-11-21
Based on Ta-Nehisi Coates’ #1 New York Times bestseller and originally adapted and staged by the Apo
Hurricane Season
2010-02-09
Based on true events amid the wreckage and chaos dealt by Hurricane Katrina; one basketball coach in
The Acting Class
2000-04-29
A comedy about an exceptionally dysfunctional acting class. Playing unsuspecting college students, L
First Affair
1983-10-25
A young girl attending Harvard on a scholarship finds herself falling for the husband of her English
Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Uncovering America
2019-03-05
Actor Courtney B. Vance hosts this special celebrating Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s work with focus
Death Wish
2024-10-17
After losing his grandfather and job to COVID-19, an enraged deliveryman decides to do the only logi
The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story
2016-02-02
This independent first season of a 3-part series chronicles 'The Trial of the Century' with a riveti
The Emperor's New Clothes
1992-01-01
An engaging adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale about a vain emperor whose foolishnes
W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause
2026-05-19
Explore the life and legacy of notable Black scholar and civil rights pioneer W.E.B. Du Bois. From h