Courtney B. Vance
Courtney Bernard Vance[1] (born March 12, 1960) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in films such as Hamburger Hill and The Hunt for Red October, and for his television work on shows such as Law & Order: Criminal Intent, where he played Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver, and The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, on which he portrayed Johnnie Cochran. He also guest-starred on the TNT series The Closer from 2010 to 2011 as Chief Tommy Delk.
Courtney B. Vance | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Vance in 2007 | |
| Born | Courtney Bernard Vance March 12, 1960 |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) Yale University (MFA) |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 2 |
In 2013, Vance won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role in Lucky Guy.[2] In 2016, he won a Primetime Emmy for his depiction of Cochran in The People v. O. J. Simpson.
Early life
Vance was born on March 12, 1960 in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Leslie Anita (Daniels), a librarian, and Conroy Vance, a grocery store manager and benefits administrator.[1][3] He attended Detroit Country Day School[4] and later graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree. While attending Harvard, Vance was already working as an actor at the Boston Shakespeare Company. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree later at Yale School of Drama where he met fellow student and future wife Angela Bassett.[5]
Career
Vance has earned three Tony Award nominations. He won Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as Hap Hairston in Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy at the 67th Tony Awards (2013).[6] He was nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role as Cory in August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award for Best Play-winning play Fences at the 41st Tony Awards (1987). He was nominated for Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as Paul in John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation at the 45th Tony Awards (1991). In 1987, he won a Clarence Derwent Award for his role as Cory Maxson in Fences.
Prior to joining the cast of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Vance appeared on the original Law & Order series twice: in a minor role in the first-season episode "By Hooker, By Crook", and in a major role in the fifth-season episode "Rage".
His early feature film credits include Hamburger Hill, The Hunt for Red October, The Last Supper, Dangerous Minds, and The Adventures of Huck Finn. More recently, he appeared in Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune, Penny Marshall's The Preacher's Wife, and in Clint Eastwood's Space Cowboys. Vance also starred in Love and Action in Chicago, a romantic comedy which he also co-produced. Vance played Black Panther Bobby Seale in the Melvin and Mario Van Peebles docudrama Panther. In 2008 and 2009, he guest starred in the final season of ER, alongside his wife Angela Bassett. He was also in Hurricane Season.
On December 2, 2008, TV Guide reported that Vance had been cast as the Los Angeles bureau chief of the FBI in the ABC pilot FlashForward, which was based on a Robert J. Sawyer novel, and which was slated to be a possible “companion show” to Lost.[7] In 2011, he starred in the American horror film Final Destination 5. Vance was tapped for the lead in the German-American apocalypse thriller The Divide.
He appeared in a Disney Channel Original Movie titled Let It Shine, where he played the Pastor Jacob Debarge, the main character's father. Vance co-starred with Tyler James Williams, Trevor Jackson, Coco Jones, Brandon Mychal Smith, and Dawnn Lewis. It was the third time Vance portrayed a pastor in a motion picture (the first being The Preacher's Wife and the second being Joyful Noise).
Vance has also provided the voiceover for the National Football League's "You Want the NFL, Go to the NFL" television spots.[8]
He appeared as Chief Tommy Delk on the TNT series, The Closer from 2010 to 2011 (Season 6–7). Vance also played the role of Attorney Benjamin Brooks on four episodes of ABC's Revenge.[9] In 2015, he portrayed Miles Dyson in Terminator Genisys opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger and Emilia Clarke.[10]
In 2016, he took on the role of Johnnie Cochran in FX's American Crime Story, which tells the story of the O. J. Simpson murder case.[11] The series premiered on February 2, 2016, and his performance was critically acclaimed.[12][13][14]
In 2018, he appeared as Neil Beeby in the Peter Hedges film Ben Is Back, opposite Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges.[15] He has also been cast opposite Niecy Nash in Prentice Penny's feature film directorial debut, the Netflix original movie Uncorked set for a 2020 release.[16]
Personal life
Vance is married to Angela Bassett, whom he first met in 1980. Together, they have twins, son Slater Josiah Vance and daughter Bronwyn Golden Vance; the twins were born on January 27, 2006. He and Bassett have authored a book, Friends: A Love Story, with Hilary Beard.[17] The two also participate in the annual Christmas celebration, Candlelight Processional, at Epcot. The family lives in Los Angeles.[18]
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. He is an alumnus of the Detroit Boys & Girls Club, and was recently inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame for Boys & Girls Clubs of America.[19]
On the PBS program Finding Your Roots,[20] Vance discovered that his father was born out of wedlock to 17-year-old Victoria Ardella Vance.
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Hamburger Hill | Spc. Abraham 'Doc' Johnson | |
| 1990 | The Hunt for Red October | Sonar Technician (Petty Officer 2nd Class) Jones | |
| 1993 | The Adventures of Huck Finn | Jim | |
| 1993 | Beyond the Law | Conroy Price | |
| 1994 | Holy Matrimony | Cooper | |
| 1995 | Panther | Bobby Seale | |
| 1995 | Dangerous Minds | George Grandey | |
| 1995 | The Last Supper | Luke | |
| 1996 | The Preacher's Wife | Reverend Henry Biggs | |
| 1998 | Blind Faith | John Williams | Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead |
| 1998 | Ambushed | Jerry Robinson | |
| 1999 | Cookie's Fortune | Otis Tucker | |
| 1999 | Love and Action in Chicago | Eddie Jones | Co-producer |
| 2000 | Space Cowboys | Roger Hines | |
| 2002 | D-Tox | Reverend Jones | Also known as Eye See You |
| 2008 | Nothing but the Truth | Agent O'Hara | |
| 2009 | Hurricane Season | Mr. Randolph | |
| 2010 | Extraordinary Measures | Marcus Temple | |
| 2011 | The Divide | Delvin | |
| 2011 | Final Destination 5 | Agent Jim Block | |
| 2012 | Joyful Noise | Pastor Dale | |
| 2015 | Terminator Genisys | Miles Dyson | |
| 2016 | Office Christmas Party | Walter | |
| 2017 | The Mummy | Army Colonel Greenway | |
| 2018 | Isle of Dogs | Narrator (voice) | |
| 2018 | Ben Is Back | Neal Burns | |
| 2020 | The Photograph | Louis Morton | |
| 2020 | Uncorked | Louis | |
| 2020 | Project Power | Captain Crane | |
Television films
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | First Affair | Male student | |
| 1991 | The Emperor's New Clothes | Scribe (voice) | |
| 1992 | In the Line of Duty: Street War | Justice Butler | |
| 1993 | Percy & Thunder | Thunder | |
| 1994 | Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad | Thomas | |
| 1995 | The Piano Lesson | Lymon | |
| 1995 | The Tuskegee Airmen | Lt. Glenn | |
| 1995 | The Affair | Travis Holloway | Nominated—CableACE Award for Best Actor in a Movie or Miniseries |
| 1996 | The Boys Next Door | Lucien P. Singer | |
| 1997 | 12 Angry Men | Foreman | |
| 1998 | Naked City: Justice with a Bullet | Officer James Halloran | |
| 1998 | Naked City: A Killer Christmas | Officer James Halloran | |
| 2002 | Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story | Clarence Brandley | |
| 2012 | Let It Shine | Pastor Jacob DeBarge | |
| 2017 | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks | Sir Lord Keenan Kester Cofield |
Television series
References
- "Courtney Vance Biography (1960–)". Film Reference. 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
- Semuels, Alana (June 9, 2013). "Tony Awards 2013: Courtney B. Vance glad he took a chance on 'Lucky Guy'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
- Gates Jr., Henry Louis (2016-01-28). Finding Your Roots, Season 2: The Official Companion to the PBS Series. UNC Press Books. ISBN 9781469626192.
- "Alumni E-Bee". Detroit Country Day School. 2013. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
- Penn, Charli (12 October 2011). "Black Love: Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance". Essence. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- Purcell, Carey (6 September 2013). "Kinky Boots, Vanya and Sonia, Pippin and Virginia Woolf? Are Big Winners at 67th Annual Tony Awards". Playbill. Archived from the original on June 11, 2013. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
- Who's on board for ABC's new sci-fi thriller?" TV Guide. December 2, 2008. Retrieved on December 3, 2008.
- "For N.F.L., Split Seconds Become 30-Second Spots". The New York Times. August 6, 2009. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
- "Revenge (TV Series 2011– ) - Full Cast & Crew". IMDb. 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
- "Preview: Here's a T-800 From 'Terminator Genisys'". Bloody Disgusting. January 6, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
- Goldberg, Lesley (February 5, 2015). "Courtney B. Vance Set as Johnnie Cochran in FX's 'American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 7, 2015.
- Sepinwall, Alan (February 1, 2016). "Review: FX's compelling 'The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story'". HitFix. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
- Fienberg, Dan (January 19, 2016). "'The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story': TV Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 4, 2016.
- Bernstein, Jonathan (February 3, 2016). "The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, review: 'expertly executed entertainment'". The Telegraph. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
- "Ben Is Back (2018)" – via www.imdb.com.
- "Niecy Nash, Courtney B. Vance to Star in 'Uncorked' for Netflix". The Hollywood Reporter.
- "Bassett and Vance Tell Their 'Love Story'", NPR, February 16, 2007; with Farai Chideya interview (43 min.) and excerpts/readings by authors. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
- Smith, Thomas (December 14, 2009). "Unique Perspective – 'Candlelight' at Disney's Epcot". Disney Parks. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
- "Home >> About Us >> Alumni Hall of Fame >> Courtney B. Vance". Boys and Girls Club of America. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
- "Courtney B. Vance", pbs.org, September 23 (2014?). Retrieved 2016-08-17.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Courtney Vance. |
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Wikiquote has quotations related to: Courtney B. Vance |
- Courtney B. Vance on IMDb
- Courtney B. Vance Interview with wife Angela Bassett on Sidewalks Entertainment
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