Pruitt Taylor Vince

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Pruitt Taylor Vince (born July 5, 1960) is an award-winning American character actor who has made many appearances in film and television.

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Vince began acting due to a mistake; a computer error in his high school registration scheduled him in an acting class, a subject which Vince has never left.

His film debut was in Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law, but his scenes wound up on the cutting room floor. He had no difficulty obtaining more film roles, and had prominent supporting roles in a number of major films, including a turn as a dimwitted Ku Klux Klan member in Mississippi Burning. Vince also had a big role in Nobody's Fool as the co-worker and best friend of Paul Newman's character. He had his first lead role in James Mangold's independent film Heavy, playing a sweet, silent overweight cook harboring a crush on a waitress (Liv Tyler).

Vince is probably best known for his role in Oliver Stone’s JFK as key assassination witness Lee Bowers, to whom he bore a stronge resemblance.

Vince often alternates roles of both heroic and villainous characters, like a lovable small town pub owner in Beautiful Girls, a schizophrenic serial killer with multiple personalities in Identity (a second collaboration with director Mangold) and a pompous sheriff in Nurse Betty. Vince also played a Southern cop in Angel Heart and Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers . Vince received an Emmy Award in 1997 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his turn as serial killer Clifford Banks during the second season of the television series Murder One. More recently he appeared in the movie Constantine. Other film titles include the neo-noir China Moon and the psychological horror film Jacob's Ladder.

He has nystagmus, a condition which causes a person's eyes to move involuntarily.

Additionally, Vince has made guest appearances on numerous TV shows, ranging from The X-Files, Miami Vice, Quantum Leap, Chicago Hope, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Highlander in the Season 4 episode "The Innocent" as a mentally handicapped Immortal named Mikey Bellows. He also had a guest role playing a 600 lb. patient in Fox's medical drama House.