Cast & creator
Courtney B. Vance
Best known for Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Law & Order
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.
Also known as: Courtney Bernard Vance
65
film credits
38
television credits
101
1944–2026 · acting roles
6.5
average across scored titles
Signature credits
Known for
Across film & television
Filmography (103)
Showing 103 of 103 credits
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
Self - Guest
2009
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Self - Guest
2015
Law & Order
Mayor's Assistant
1990Law & Order
Benjamin Greer
1990
The View
Self
1997The View
Self - Guest
1997
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Ron Carver
2001
The Jennifer Hudson Show
Self
2022
Sherri
Self - Guest
2022
The Closer
Chief Tommy Delk
2005The Closer
Chief Tommy Delk (archive footage) (uncredited)
2005
Scandal
Clarence Parker
2012
ER
Russell Banfield
1994
NOVA
Narrator
1974
Golden Globe Awards
Self - Audience Member
1944
The Tamron Hall Show
Self - Guest
2019
American Experience
Narrator (voice)
1988
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
Self
2014
Revenge
Benjamin Brooks
2011
Boston Public
Walter Harrelson
2000
The Wild Thornberrys
Makai (voice)
1998
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Zeus
2023
American Crime Story
Johnnie Cochran
2016
Masters of Sex
Dr. Charles Hendricks
2013
Lilo & Stitch
Cobra Bubbles
2025
Genius
C.L. Franklin
2017
Finding Your Roots
Self
2012
thirtysomething
1987
The Mummy
Colonel Greenway
2017
Terminator Genisys
Miles Dyson
2015
Picket Fences
Warren Grier
1992
FlashForward
Stanford Wedeck
2009
Isle of Dogs
Narrator (voice)
2018
Graceland
Sam Campbell
2013
Any Day Now
1998
Final Destination 5
Agent Block
2011
Grotesquerie
Marshall Tryon
2024Grotesquerie
Executive Producer
2024
Lovecraft Country
George Freeman
2020
The Hunt for Red October
Petty Officer Ronald 'Jonesy' Jones (USS Dallas)
1990
61st Street
Franklin Roberts
2022
Amend: The Fight for America
Self
2021
Dangerous Minds
Mr. George Grandey
1995
Project Power
Captain Craine
2020
12 Angry Men
Foreman
1997
Space Cowboys
Roger Hines
2000
Ben Is Back
Mr. Beeby
2018
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Lucien P. Singer
1951
Office Christmas Party
Walter Davis
2016
The Preacher's Wife
Reverend Henry Biggs
1996
Hamburger Hill
Spc. Abraham 'Doc' Johnson
1987
Nothing But the Truth
Agent O'Hara
2008
Extraordinary Measures
Marcus Temple
2010
The Photograph
Louis Morton
2020
Gary the Rat
2003
The Divide
Delvin
2012
The Adventures of Huck Finn
Jim
1993
Let It Shine
Jacob
2012
Beyond the Law
Conroy Price
1993
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Sir Lord Keenan Coefield
2017
Joyful Noise
Pastor Dale
2012
D-Tox
Reverend Jones
2002
The Last Supper
Luke
1995
Holy Matrimony
Cooper
1994
Hurricane Season
Mr. Randolph
2010
Panther
Bobby Seale
1995
The Tuskegee Airmen
Lt. Glenn
1995
Heist 88
Jeremy Horne
2023Heist 88
Executive Producer
2023
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Nursery Rhymes
(voice)
1992
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
Other Voices (voice)
2004
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
2003
Girl Dad
2026
Naked City: Justice with a Bullet
Officer James Halloran
1998
The Boys Next Door
Lucien P. Singer
1996
Cookie's Fortune
Otis Tucker
1999
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
Corey (segment "Fences")
2006
Love and Action in Chicago
Eddie Jones
1999
Between the World and Me
Self
2020
Death Wish
Pilot (voice)
2024
On Broadway
Self (archive footage)
2019
W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause
Self
2026
Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story
Clarence Brandley
2002
Uncorked
Louis
2020
Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad
Thomas
1994
The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story
2000
Percy & Thunder
Wayne 'Thunder' Carter
1993
In the Line of Duty: Street War
Justice Butler
1992
The Piano Lesson
Lymon
1995
Nonsense and Lullabyes: Poems
(voice)
1992
The Affair
Travis Holloway
1995
Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers
Reader
1991Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Uncovering America
Self - Host
2019
The Acting Class
Self
2000
Naked City: A Killer Christmas
Officer James Halloran
1998
Ambushed
Jerry Robinson
1998
Partners of the Heart
Vivien Thomas (voice)
2002
The Emperor's New Clothes
Scribe (voice)
1992
Blind Faith
John Williams
1998
Hollywood's Architect: The Paul R. Williams Story
Self - Narrator
2020
First Affair
Male Student #2
1983
The Fight
Narrator (voice)
2005
The Groveland Four
Self - Narrator
2018