Who are Courtney B. Vance’s family members?

Courtney B. Vance is a popular American actor who is known for his work in films, TV shows, and theatre. He was born on March 12, 1960, in Detroit, Michigan, United States. He graduated from Harvard University and later did his masters degree from the Yale School of Drama. He began his acting career in theatre in the 1980s and was praised for his work in plays like Fences.

Vance made his TV debut with the show First Affair in 1983 and his film debut with Hamburger Hill in 1987. He is known for his work in The Tuskegee Airmen (1995), The Preacher's Wife (1996), Cookie's Fortune (1999), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001-2006), The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016), Isle of Dogs (2018), and Lovecraft Country (2020). Let’s take a look at Courtney B. Vance’s family.

Courtney B. Vance’s parents

Courtney B. Vance is the son of Leslie Anita Daniels and Conroy Vance. His father, Conroy Vance, was a grocery store manager and benefits administrator, and his mother, Leslie Anita Daniels, was a librarian. His mother participated in many community initiatives in Detroit, including literacy programs and Habitat for Humanity. In her later years, she battled ALS. In a 2016 interview with E! News, Vance talked about his mother’s illness and said, “It's a devastating disease. Now all she can do is blink her eyes. One blink for yes, two blinks for no. My mother needs someone to turn her, to wipe her mouth...[but] her mind is all still there."

In an interview with Brain & Life, he talked about his mother and said, “I said something about her 'little job at the library.' She got quiet, and I recognized immediately that I'd made a mistake. She said, ‘Courtney, this 'little job' of mine allows you to go to that damn school," and walked away.” His father committed suicide when Vance was in his 30s in 1990s. In his book, The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power, he talked about his father’s suicide and how it affected him.

In his book he wrote, “Daddy kept his hurt to himself. Neither he nor my mother were ones to gripe or complain in front of their children. When I got the call that my father was dead and I flew home, I found my mother puddled up on the floor. It took a couple days for my sister to get to Michigan, so I nursed Mom’s grief and my own mostly alone. In the coming days, Mommy somehow gathered herself enough to call the funeral director, and during the homegoing ceremony she nodded her head through the hymns and eulogies and picked at her plate during the repast.”

He also shared that his mother advised him and his sister, Cecilie Vance, to take therapy after their father’s suicide. He wrote, “I’d just finished packing my bag for New York when Mom called my sister and me into the living room and asked us to sit down. ‘When you both get back home, I want each of you to go to therapy,’ she said. ‘And I’m going to find me someone to talk with too.’ She didn’t want us to keep the pain a secret, not our father’s, not our own. You don’t want to wait until a tragedy happens to realize you’ve got stuff to get over. It took my father killing himself for me to recognize I had issues. We all do.”

Courtney B. Vance’s wife and children

Courtney B. Vance is married to Angela Bassett. She is a popular American actress, born on August 16, 1958, in New York CIty, United States. She has been working in the industry since the 1980s. She made her TV debut with the telefilm Doubletake in 1985 and her film debut with F/X in 1986. She is best known for her work in What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993), The Rosa Parks Story (2002), American Horror Story (2013-2018), the MCU films (2018-2022), etc.

Vance and Bassett met for the first time in the 1980s at Yale University. They reconnected in 1994 and started dating each other soon after. In an interview with People, Basset shared how they reconnected, “So maybe about 14 years later, our paths crossed here in Los Angeles. And I was single; he was single. And I had such an appreciation for him over those years — of his consistency, how he treated other people, of what a supporter he is, what a connector of people and ideas he is, how passionate he is." The couple got married on October 12, 1997, after dating for a few years.

On January 27, 2006, Vance and Bassett had twins via surrogacy. The couple has a son named Slater Josiah Vance and a daughter named Bronwyn Golden Vance. In an interview with Oprah, Vance talked about his children and said, “I had a dream about seven years ago that we were going to have twins. I didn't know how it was going to happen.” In the same interview, Bassett added, “Just standing there together, holding each other with the realization that this is the moment that we've been working toward, praying for … [it's a dream come true]."

The couple also co-wrote a book titled Friends: A Love Story, published in February 2007, in which they shared their love story. They are supportive of each other’s career and attended many events together. In a 2020 interview with People, Bassett shared the secret of her successful marriage. She said, “Staying together so long, whether in the industry or not, I think the important thing is that you gotta marry the right person.”