Pruitt Taylor Vince (born July 5, 1960) is an American character actor. He had roles in the films Mississippi Burning (1988), Jacob's Ladder (1990), JFK (1991), Identity (2003), and Constantine (2005). He played J.J. Laroche in The Mentalist (2008–2015). Vince has also appeared on many television series. In 1997, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for his guest role as Clifford Banks in the second season of the television series Murder One. Vince was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 5, 1960. He attended Louisiana State University. For most of his life, Vince has had a condition called nystagmus, the involuntary movement of the eye. Vince made his film debut in Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law, but his scenes were edited out. He had prominent supporting roles in several major films, including a turn as a dimwitted Ku Klux Klan member in Mississippi Burning (1988), Lee Bowers in JFK (1991), and the main character's best friend in Nobody's Fool (1994). His first lead role was in James Mangold's independent film Heavy (1995), playing a sweet, silent, overweight cook harbouring a crush on a waitress played by Liv Tyler. He starred in Giuseppe Tornatore's film The Legend of 1900 (1998). Vince often alternates between heroic and villainous characters. Vince played a Southern policeman in the neo-noir psychological horror film Angel Heart (1987), a kidnapper's assistant in the crime thriller film Trapped (2002), and a deputy prison warden in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994). He played a lovable, small-town pub owner in Beautiful Girls (1996); a mentally ill serial killer in the 2003 mystery thriller film Identity (a second collaboration with director Mangold); a pompous sheriff in Nurse Betty (2000); a gossip columnist in Simone (2002); and a dissolute Roman Catholic priest with psychic abilities in the 2005 supernatural horror film Constantine. He can also be seen in the dramatic film Love from Ground Zero (1998), playing as Walter. Other film titles include the psychological horror film Jacob's Ladder (1990), the neo-noir film China Moon (1994), the action thriller film Homefront (2013), and the supernatural horror film The Devil's Candy (2015). Guest appearances on TV shows include Deadwood, Alias, The X-Files, Miami Vice, Quantum Leap, Chicago Hope, In the Heat of the Night, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Highlander: The Series, and the American remake of Touching Evil. In 2011, he appeared as Otis in the AMC television series The Walking Dead. He also had a guest role playing a 600-lb. patient in Fox's medical drama House. From 2010 to 2014, he had a multi-episode appearance in The Mentalist. In 2012, he appeared in a full episode of Justified. He took a comic role as "Jelly" in Flypaper. In 2018, he appeared on an episode of The Blacklist as Lawrence Devlin. Vince received an Emmy Award in 1997 for Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role as serial killer Clifford Banks during the second season of the television series Murder One.

Filmography

• 2025Superman — Pa Kent
• 2024F.U.A.I. — Producer
• Lady in the Lake — Bob Bauer
• 2021Crime Story — Tommy
• 2019Scripts Gone Wild Zombie Nightmare
• 201859 Seconds — Robert
• 2018ASIA A — Noah
• 2018Bird Box — Rick
• 2018Gotti — Angelo Ruggiero
• Stranger Things — Ray
• 2016The Devil's Candy — Ray
• Heroes Reborn — Casper Abraham
• 201413 Sins — Vogler
• 2013Beautiful Creatures — Mr. Lee
• 2013Broken Blood — Earl Wayne
• 2013Homefront — Werks
• Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — Grill
• The Blacklist — Lawrence Devlin
• 2013The Grief Tourist — Carl Marznap
• 2012Bending The Rules — Happy
• 2012Brake — Driver / Boss Terrorist (voice)
• 2012Butter — Ned Eaten
• 2012Mysterious Island — Gideon Spilett
• 2011Creature — Grover
• 2011Drive Angry — Roy
• 2011Flypaper — Jelly
• 2011On the Inside — Ben Marshal
• The Cape — Goggles
• 2011The Smell of Success — Cleveland Clod
• Hawaii Five-0 — Richard Branch
• Justified — Glen Fogle
• The Walking Dead — Otis
• 2009Don McKay — Mel
• 2009In the Electric Mist — Lou Girard
• 2009Leaves of Grass — Big Joe Sharpe
• Canterbury's Law
• 2008The Echo — Joseph
• The Mentalist — J.J. LaRoche
• True Blood — Finn
• 2007Captivity — Ben Dexter
• 2007When A Man Falls In The Forest — Travis Gilmore
• Bones — Haze Jackson
• 2005Constantine — Father Hennessy
• 2005Drop Dead Sexy — Spider
• Medium — Peter Winant
• Deadwood — Mose Manuel
• House — George
• 2003Identity — Malcolm Rivers
• 2003L.A. Confidential — Sid Hudgens
• 2003Monster — Gene / Stuttering "John"
• The Handler
• 200213 Moons — Owen
• 2002S1m0ne — Max Sayer
• 2002Trapped — Marvin
• Alias — Campbell / Schapker
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation — Marty Gleason
• 2000Nurse Betty — Ballard
• 2000The Cell — Dr. Reid
• 1999Mumford — Henry Follett
• 1998Doctor Dolittle — Patient at Hammersmith (uncredited)
• 1998Love from Ground Zero — Walter
• 1998The Legend of 1900 — Max Tooney
• 1997A Further Gesture — Scott
• 1997Cold Around the Heart — Johnny 'Cokebottles' Costello
• 1997Murder One: Diary of a Serial Killer — Clifford Banks
• 1997Night Sins — Olie Swain
• Night Sins — Olie Swain
• 1997The End of Violence — Frank Cray
• 1996Beautiful Girls — Stanley "Stinky" Womack
• 1996The Cottonwood — Mark Salli
• 1995Heavy — Victor Modino
• Murder One
• 1995Under the Hula Moon — Bob
• Chicago Hope — Walter Platt
• 1994China Moon — Daryl Jeeters
• 1994City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold — Bud
• 1994Natural Born Killers — Deputy Warden Kavanaugh
• 1994Nobody's Fool — Rub Squeers
• The X-Files — Gerry Schnauz
• Highlander: The Series — Mikey
• 1992Till Death Us Do Part — Michael Brockington
• 1991Dead in the Water — Lou Rescetti
• 1991JFK — Lee Bowers
• 1991Sweet Poison — Coyle
• 1990Come See the Paradise — Augie Farrell
• 1990Fear — Jay Anthony Lapedes ("Shadow Man")
• 1990Jacob's Ladder — Paul
• 1990Wild at Heart — Buddy
• 1989Homer and Eddie — Cashier
• I Know My First Name Is Steven — Irving Murphy
• 1989K-9 — Benny the Mule
• Quantum Leap — Hank Pilcher
• 1988Mississippi Burning — Lester Cowens
• 1988Red Heat — Night Clerk
• 1987Angel Heart — Det. Deimos
• 1987Barfly — Joe
• 1987Shy People — Paul
• Miami Vice — Cruz

Appearances as themselves (1)

• 2005Nobody Wants Your Film — Self