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

• 2026Girl Dad
• 2025Lilo & Stitch — Cobra Bubbles
• 2024Death Wish — Pilot (voice)
• Grotesquerie — Marshall Tryon, Executive Producer
• 2023Heist 88 — Jeremy Horne, Executive Producer
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians — Zeus
• 61st Street — Franklin Roberts
• Lovecraft Country — George Freeman
• 2020Project Power — Captain Craine
• 2020The Photograph — Louis Morton
• 2020Uncorked — Louis
• 2018Ben Is Back — Mr. Beeby
• 2018Isle of Dogs — Narrator (voice)
• Genius — C.L. Franklin
• 2017The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks — Sir Lord Keenan Coefield
• 2017The Mummy — Colonel Greenway
• American Crime Story — Johnnie Cochran
• 2016Office Christmas Party — Walter Davis
• 2015Terminator Genisys — Miles Dyson
• Graceland — Sam Campbell
• Masters of Sex — Dr. Charles Hendricks
• 2012Joyful Noise — Pastor Dale
• 2012Let It Shine — Jacob
• Scandal — Clarence Parker
• 2012The Divide — Delvin
• 2011Final Destination 5 — Agent Block
• Revenge — Benjamin Brooks
• 2010Extraordinary Measures — Marcus Temple
• 2010Hurricane Season — Mr. Randolph
• FlashForward — Stanford Wedeck
• 2008Nothing But the Truth — Agent O'Hara
• 2006The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays — Corey (segment "Fences")
• The Closer — Chief Tommy Delk, Chief Tommy Delk (archive footage) (uncredited)
• 2005The Fight — Narrator (voice)
• 2004Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson — Other Voices (voice)
• Gary the Rat
• 2003Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
• 2002D-Tox — Reverend Jones
• 2002Partners of the Heart — Vivien Thomas (voice)
• 2002Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story — Clarence Brandley
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent — Ron Carver
• Boston Public — Walter Harrelson
• 2000Space Cowboys — Roger Hines
• 2000The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story
• 1999Cookie's Fortune — Otis Tucker
• 1999Love and Action in Chicago — Eddie Jones
• 1998Ambushed — Jerry Robinson
• Any Day Now
• 1998Blind Faith — John Williams
• 1998Naked City: A Killer Christmas — Officer James Halloran
• 1998Naked City: Justice with a Bullet — Officer James Halloran
• The Wild Thornberrys — Makai (voice)
• 199712 Angry Men — Foreman
• 1996The Boys Next Door — Lucien P. Singer
• 1996The Preacher's Wife — Reverend Henry Biggs
• 1995Dangerous Minds — Mr. George Grandey
• 1995Panther — Bobby Seale
• 1995The Affair — Travis Holloway
• 1995The Last Supper — Luke
• 1995The Piano Lesson — Lymon
• 1995The Tuskegee Airmen — Lt. Glenn
• ER — Russell Banfield
• 1994Holy Matrimony — Cooper
• 1994Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad — Thomas
• 1993Beyond the Law — Conroy Price
• 1993Percy & Thunder — Wayne 'Thunder' Carter
• 1993The Adventures of Huck Finn — Jim
• 1992In the Line of Duty: Street War — Justice Butler
• 1992Nonsense and Lullabyes: Nursery Rhymes — (voice)
• 1992Nonsense and Lullabyes: Poems — (voice)
• Picket Fences — Warren Grier
• 1992The Emperor's New Clothes — Scribe (voice)
• 1991Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers — Reader
• Law & Order — Mayor's Assistant, Benjamin Greer
• 1990The Hunt for Red October — Petty Officer Ronald 'Jonesy' Jones (USS Dallas)
• American Experience — Narrator (voice)
• 1987Hamburger Hill — Spc. Abraham 'Doc' Johnson
• thirtysomething
• 1983First Affair — Male Student #2
• NOVA — Narrator
• Hallmark Hall of Fame — Lucien P. Singer

Appearances as themselves (17)

• 2026W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause — Self
• Sherri — Self - Guest
• The Jennifer Hudson Show — Self
• Amend: The Fight for America — Self
• 2020Between the World and Me — Self
• 2020Hollywood's Architect: The Paul R. Williams Story — Self - Narrator
• 2019Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Uncovering America — Self - Host
• 2019On Broadway — Self (archive footage)
• The Tamron Hall Show — Self - Guest
• 2018The Groveland Four — Self - Narrator
• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — Self - Guest
• Variety Studio: Actors on Actors — Self
• Finding Your Roots — Self
• Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen — Self - Guest
• 2000The Acting Class — Self
• The View — Self, Self - Guest
• Golden Globe Awards — Self - Audience Member