Courtney B. Vance

Courtney B. Vance
Vance in March 2007
Born	Courtney Bernard Vance (1960-03-12) March 12, 1960 Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard University (BA) Yale School of Drama (MFA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1983–present
Spouse(s)	Angela Bassett (m. 1997)
Children	2
Parent(s)	Conroy Vance (father) Leslie Vance (mother)

Courtney Bernard Vance^[1] (born March 12, 1960) is an American actor. He is notable for his roles in the feature films Hamburger Hill and The Hunt for Red October and the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent, in which he played Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver. He guest starred on the TNT series The Closer as Chief Tommy Delk, from 2010–2011. In 2013 he won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role in Lucky Guy.^[2]

Early life

Vance was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 12, 1960, the son of Conroy Vance, a grocery store manager and benefits administrator, and Leslie, a librarian.^[1] He attended Detroit Country Day School,^[3] 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.

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).^[4] He was nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role as Corey 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.

Vance's television credits include such cable movies as:

• Blind Faith (opposite Charles S. Dutton), for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actor in 1999)
• The 1997 William Friedkin-directed 12 Angry Men (with Jack Lemmon, George C. Scott and Ossie Davis)
• The Hallmark presentation The Boys Next Door (alongside Nathan Lane, Tony Goldwyn, and Michael Jeter)
• The Tuskegee Airmen (with Laurence Fishburne and Andre Braugher)
• The television production of August Wilson's play The Piano Lesson
• The Affair, for which he received a 1996 CableACE Award nomination as Best Actor
• The Showtime presentation Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story
• Guest starred in ER as Russell Banfield, Dr. Catherine Banfield's husband.
• Voiced several ex-slave narratives in Unchained Memories, aired on HBO in February 2003.

On December 2, 2008, TV Guide reported that Vance has been cast as the Los Angeles bureau chief of the FBI in the new ABC pilot FlashForward, which is based on a Robert J. Sawyer novel, and is said to be a possible “companion show” to Lost.^[5] In 2011, he starred in the American horror film Final Destination 5. Vance is set for the lead in the German-American apocalypse thriller The Divide.

He also 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.^[6]

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.^[7] In 2015 he portrayed Miles Dyson in Terminator Genisys.^[8]

In 2016, he will be playing the role of Johnny Cochran in FX's American Crime Story, which tells the story of the OJ Simpson trial. The series premiered on February 2, and received critical acclaim for its writing, directing, and acting. Vance's performance was universally acclaimed as well.

Vance with wife Angela Bassett

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. The two also participate in the annual Christmas celebration, Candlelight Processional, at Epcot. The family lives in Los Angeles.

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.

On the PBS program Finding Your Roots, Vance discovered that his father was born out of wedlock to a 17-year-old woman, Victoria Ardella Vance.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Courtney B. Vance.

• Courtney B. Vance at the Internet Movie Database
• Courtney B. Vance Interview with wife Angela Bassett on Sidewalks Entertainment