Biography
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 (201...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Lilo & Stitch
2025
as Cobra Bubbles
The wildly funny and touching story of a lonely Hawaiian girl and the fugitive alien who helps to mend her broken family.

Heist 88
2023
as Jeremy Horne
A criminal mastermind recruits a group of young bank employees to steal 80 million dollars in one of the largest bank heist in US history.

Heist 88
2023
Executive Producer
A criminal mastermind recruits a group of young bank employees to steal 80 million dollars in one of the largest bank heist in US history.

Between the World and Me
2020
as Self
Based on Ta-Nehisi Coates’ #1 New York Times bestseller and originally adapted and staged by the Apollo Theater, this special combines elements of tha...

Project Power
2020
as Captain Craine
An ex-soldier, a teen and a cop collide in New Orleans as they hunt for the source behind a dangerous new pill that grants users temporary superpowers...

Uncorked
2020
as Louis
Elijah must balance his dream of becoming a master sommelier with his father's expectations that he carry on the family's Memphis BBQ joint.

The Photograph
2020
as Louis Morton
When famed photographer Christina Eames dies unexpectedly, she leaves her estranged daughter, Mae, hurt, angry and full of questions. When Mae finds a...

Hollywood's Architect: The Paul R. Williams Story
2020
as Self - Narrator
Nicknamed “Architect to the Stars,” African American architect Paul R. Williams had an incredible life. Orphaned at the age of four, Williams grew up ...

On Broadway
2019
as Self (archive footage)
An all-star cast tells the inside story of the Broadway theater, and how it came back from the brink thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inc...
Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Uncovering America
2019
as Self - Host
Actor Courtney B. Vance hosts this special celebrating Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s work with focus on his five quintessential documentary series abou...

Ben Is Back
2018
as Mr. Beeby
19-year-old Ben Burns unexpectedly returns home to his family's suburban home on Christmas Eve morning. Ben's mother, Holly, is relieved and welcoming...

The Groveland Four
2018
as Self - Narrator
July, 1949: four young black men are wrongly accused of rape by a 17-year-old farm wife in rural Lake County, Florida. The case of “The Groveland Four...

Isle of Dogs
2018
as Narrator (voice)
In the future, an outbreak of canine flu leads the mayor of a Japanese city to banish all dogs to an island used as a garbage dump. The outcasts must ...

The Mummy
2017
as Colonel Greenway
Though safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our c...

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
2017
as Sir Lord Keenan Coefield
An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line ...

Office Christmas Party
2016
as Walter Davis
When Carol Vanstone, CEO of the technology company Zenotek, expresses her intention to close the Chicago branch, run by her brother Clay, he and his c...

Terminator Genisys
2015
as Miles Dyson
The year is 2029. John Connor, leader of the resistance continues the war against the machines. At the Los Angeles offensive, John's fears of the unkn...

Let It Shine
2012
as Jacob
A young teenage rapper must use his musical talent to help his friend out and win the girl of his dreams by going through several events of betrayal, ...

Joyful Noise
2012
as Pastor Dale
G.G. Sparrow faces off with her choir's newly appointed director, Vi Rose Hill, over the group's direction as they head into a national competition.

The Divide
2012
as Delvin
Survivors of a nuclear attack are grouped together for days in the basement of their apartment building, where fear and dwindling supplies wear away a...

Final Destination 5
2011
as Agent Block
Death is just as omnipresent as ever, and is unleashed after one man’s premonition saves a group of coworkers from a terrifying suspension bridge coll...

Extraordinary Measures
2010
as Marcus Temple
Working-class father John Crowley is finally on the fast track to corporate success when his two young children are diagnosed with Pompe disease—a con...

Hurricane Season
2009
as Mr. Randolph
Based on true events amid the wreckage and chaos dealt by Hurricane Katrina; one basketball coach in Marrero, Louisiana just will not give up. Coach A...

Nothing But the Truth
2008
as Agent O'Hara
When reporter Rachel Armstrong writes a story that reveals the identity of a covert CIA operative, the government demands that Rachel reveal her sourc...

The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
2006
as Corey (segment "Fences")
The Great White Way comes into your living room via this disc of rare performances from some of Broadway's brightest luminaries. Culled from clips fro...

The Fight
2005
as Narrator (voice)
Explores the famous 1938 heavyweight bout between German Max Schmeling and American Joe Louis and finds two men who, in the shadow of war, became relu...

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
2004
as Other Voices (voice)
The story of Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight boxing champion.

Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
2003
When the Civil War ended in 1865, more than four million slaves were set free. Over 70 years later, the memories of some 2,000 slave-era survivors wer...

Partners of the Heart
2002
as Vivien Thomas (voice)
Recounts the extraordinary segregation-era partnership between two surgeons--one black and one white--who defied the medical establishment and changed...

Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story
2002
as Clarence Brandley
Based on the true story of Clarence Brandley, a black man wrongly accused in 1980 of the murder of a 16-year-old white high school girl named Cheryl F...

D-Tox
2002
as Reverend Jones
A disgraced FBI agent with a drinking problem joins nine other troubled law enforcement officers at an isolated detox clinic in the wilds of Wyoming. ...

Space Cowboys
2000
as Roger Hines
Frank Corvin, ‘Hawk’ Hawkins, Jerry O'Neill and ‘Tank’ Sullivan were hotdog members of Project Daedalus, the Air Force's test program for space travel...

The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story
2000
Documents the race riot of 1921 and the destruction of the African-American community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. With testimony by eyewitnesses ...

The Acting Class
2000
as Self
A comedy about an exceptionally dysfunctional acting class. Playing unsuspecting college students, Liz and Jill set off to find the most influential a...

Love and Action in Chicago
1999
as Eddie Jones
Just when covert assassin Eddie Jones decides to ditch his dangerous job to settle down with his girlfriend, his superiors convince him to kill a rene...

Cookie's Fortune
1999
as Otis Tucker
Conflict arises in the small town of Holly Springs when an old woman's death causes a variety of reactions among family and friends.

Naked City: A Killer Christmas
1998
as Officer James Halloran
An ambitious reporter gets in the way of two cops assigned to investigate a serial killer who becomes active around Christmas time..

Blind Faith
1998
as John Williams
In 1957, black lawyer John Williams has to defend his nephew Charlie, who is accused of strangling a white boy to death. John doesn't believe Charlie ...

Naked City: Justice with a Bullet
1998
as Officer James Halloran
A pair of taxi-driving NYC detectives take up the case of tourists who are robbed of their money and luggage by a shady limo driver. Things get dicey ...

Ambushed
1998
as Jerry Robinson
Jim Natter, the leader of a violent Kuk Klux Klan lodge, is shot dead. His teenage son Eric Natter is found nearby, and taken into police custody for ...

12 Angry Men
1997
as Foreman
During the trial of a man accused of his father's murder, a lone juror takes a stand against the guilty verdict handed down by the others as a result ...

The Preacher's Wife
1996
as Reverend Henry Biggs
Good-natured Reverend Henry Biggs finds that his marriage to choir mistress Julia is flagging, due to his constant absence caring for the deprived nei...

The Boys Next Door
1996
as Lucien P. Singer
Kind-hearted social worker Jack Palmer feels guilty about not spending enough time with his wife due to the pressures of his job taking care of four d...

The Affair
1995
as Travis Holloway
A black soldier in World War II England begins an affair with a white woman whose husband is a soldier currently overseas in battle and in doubts of h...

The Last Supper
1995
as Luke
A group of idealistic, but frustrated, liberals succumb to the temptation of murdering rightwing pundits for their political beliefs.

The Tuskegee Airmen
1995
as Lt. Glenn
During the Second World War, a special project is begun by the US Army Air Corps to integrate African American pilots into the Fighter Pilot Program. ...

Dangerous Minds
1995
as Mr. George Grandey
Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After...

Panther
1995
as Bobby Seale
Panther is a semi-historic film about the origins of The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The movie spans about 3 years (1966-68) of the Black Pa...

The Piano Lesson
1995
as Lymon
1930's Pittsburgh, a brother comes home to claim "my half of the piano", a family heirloom; but his sister is not wanting to part with it. This is a g...

Holy Matrimony
1994
as Cooper
A young Hutterite boy must marry his late brother's wife who comes from outside the community.

Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad
1994
as Thomas
A number of slaves risk their lives to escape their masters with their only help coming from the famous secret slave escape network.

Percy & Thunder
1993
as Wayne 'Thunder' Carter
A veteran trainer takes a promising fighter under his wing and lives his dreams through his protégé.

Beyond the Law
1993
as Conroy Price
Dan Saxon is an undercover cop who infiltrates a biker gang to nail the scum behind a drug-smuggling operation. In order to maintain the trust of the ...

The Adventures of Huck Finn
1993
as Jim
Mischievous Huck Finn is unnerved when his father, reemerging after years away, kidnaps him in an attempt to take away a $600 inheritance from his lat...

In the Line of Duty: Street War
1992
as Justice Butler
In this gritty cops-and-crooks drama, two detectives hunt a gang leader suspected of murdering a New York cop. The detectives enlist the help of the d...

Nonsense and Lullabyes: Poems
1992
as (voice)
This animated anthology is comprised of eighteen updated nursery rhymes and features such celebrity narrators as Eli Wallach, Linda Hunt and Karen All...

Nonsense and Lullabyes: Nursery Rhymes
1992
as (voice)
This animated anthology is comprised of eighteen updated nursery rhymes and features such celebrity narrators as Eli Wallach, Linda Hunt and Karen All...

Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers
1991
as Reader
Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers is a 1991 American short documentary film directed by Bill Couturié. It shows footage from World War I, World...

The Hunt for Red October
1990
as Petty Officer Ronald 'Jonesy' Jones (USS Dallas)
A new technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius. The Ameri...

Hamburger Hill
1987
as Spc. Abraham 'Doc' Johnson
The men of Bravo Company are facing a battle that's all uphill… up Hamburger Hill. Fourteen war-weary soldiers are battling for a mud-covered mound of...

First Affair
1983
as Male Student #2
A young girl attending Harvard on a scholarship finds herself falling for the husband of her English professor.