Pruitt Taylor Vince
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1960-07-05 (65 years old)
Place of Birth
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Pruitt Taylor Vince
Biography
Pruitt Taylor Vince (born July 5, 1960) is an American character actor. He had roles in the films Mississippi Burning (1988), Jacob's Ladder (1990), JFK (1991), Identity (2003), and Constantine (2005). He played J.J. Laroche in The Mentalist (2008–2015).
Vince has also appeared on many television series. In 1997, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for his guest role as Clifford Banks in the second season of the television series Murder One.
Vince was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 5, 1960. He attended Louisiana State University.
For most of his life, Vince has had a condition called nystagmus, the involuntary movement of the eye.
Vince made his film debut in Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law, but his scenes were edited out. He had prominent supporting roles in several major films, including a turn as a dimwitted Ku Klux Klan member in Mississippi Burning (1988), Lee Bowers in JFK (1991), and the main character's best friend in Nobody's Fool (1994). His first lead role was in James Mangold's independent film Heavy (1995), playing a sweet, silent, overweight cook harbouring a crush on a waitress played by Liv Tyler. He starred in Giuseppe Tornatore's film The Legend of 1900 (1998).
Vince often alternates between heroic and villainous characters. Vince played a Southern policeman in the neo-noir psychological horror film Angel Heart (1987), a kidnapper's assistant in the crime thriller film Trapped (2002), and a deputy prison warden in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994). He played a lovable, small-town pub owner in Beautiful Girls (1996); a mentally ill serial killer in the 2003 mystery thriller film Identity (a second collaboration with director Mangold); a pompous sheriff in Nurse Betty (2000); a gossip columnist in Simone (2002); and a dissolute Roman Catholic priest with psychic abilities in the 2005 supernatural horror film Constantine. He can also be seen in the dramatic film Love from Ground Zero (1998), playing as Walter. Other film titles include the psychological horror film Jacob's Ladder (1990), the neo-noir film China Moon (1994), the action thriller film Homefront (2013), and the supernatural horror film The Devil's Candy (2015).
Guest appearances on TV shows include Deadwood, Alias, The X-Files, Miami Vice, Quantum Leap, Chicago Hope, In the Heat of the Night, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Highlander: The Series, and the American remake of Touching Evil. In 2011, he appeared as Otis in the AMC television series The Walking Dead. He also had a guest role playing a 600-lb. patient in Fox's medical drama House. From 2010 to 2014, he had a multi-episode appearance in The Mentalist. In 2012, he appeared in a full episode of Justified. He took a comic role as "Jelly" in Flypaper. In 2018, he appeared on an episode of The Blacklist as Lawrence Devlin.
Vince received an Emmy Award in 1997 for Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role as serial killer Clifford Banks during the second season of the television series Murder One.
Acting
(2025)
Superman
as Pa Kent
(2025)
(2021)
Crime Story
as Tommy
(2018)
Bird Box
as Rick
(2018)
Gotti
as Angelo Ruggiero
(2018)
ASIA A
as Noah
(2018)
59 Seconds
as Robert
(2016)
The Devil's Candy
as Ray
(2014)
13 Sins
as Vogler
(2013)
Homefront
as Werks
(2013)
Beautiful Creatures
as Mr. Lee
(2013)
The Grief Tourist
as Carl Marznap
(2012)
Bending The Rules
as Happy
(2012)
Butter
as Ned Eaten
(2012)
Brake
as Driver / Boss Terrorist (voice)
(2011)
Drive Angry
as Roy
(2011)
The Smell of Success
as Cleveland Clod
(2011)
Flypaper
as Jelly
(2011)
Creature
as Grover
(2011)
On the Inside
as Ben Marshal
(2010)
Mysterious Island
as Gideon Spilett
(2009)
In the Electric Mist
as Lou Girard
(2009)
Don McKay
as Mel
(2009)
Leaves of Grass
as Big Joe Sharpe
(2008)
The Echo
as Joseph
(2007)
Captivity
as Ben Dexter
(2007)
When A Man Falls In The Forest
as Travis Gilmore
(2005)
Constantine
as Father Hennessy
(2005)
Nobody Wants Your Film
as Self
(2005)
Drop Dead Sexy
as Spider
(2003)
Monster
as Gene / Stuttering "John"
(2003)
Identity
as Malcolm Rivers
(2003)
L.A. Confidential
as Sid Hudgens
(2002)
Trapped
as Marvin
(2002)
S1m0ne
as Max Sayer
(2002)
13 Moons
as Owen
(2000)
The Cell
as Dr. Reid
(2000)
Nurse Betty
as Ballard
(1999)
Mumford
as Henry Follett
(1998)
Doctor Dolittle
as Patient at Hammersmith (uncredited)
(1998)
The Legend of 1900
as Max Tooney
(1998)
Love from Ground Zero
as Walter
(1997)
A Further Gesture
as Scott
(1997)
The End of Violence
as Frank Cray
(1997)
Cold Around the Heart
as Johnny 'Cokebottles' Costello
(1996)
The Cottonwood
as Mark Salli
(1996)
Beautiful Girls
as Stanley "Stinky" Womack
(1995)
Heavy
as Victor Modino
(1995)
Under the Hula Moon
as Bob
(1994)
Natural Born Killers
as Deputy Warden Kavanaugh
(1994)
Nobody's Fool
as Rub Squeers
(1994)
China Moon
as Daryl Jeeters
(1994)
(1992)
Till Death Us Do Part
as Michael Brockington
(1991)
JFK
as Lee Bowers
(1991)
Dead in the Water
as Lou Rescetti
(1991)
Sweet Poison
as Coyle
(1990)
Jacob's Ladder
as Paul
(1990)
Wild at Heart
as Buddy
(1990)
Fear
as Jay Anthony Lapedes ("Shadow Man")
(1990)
Come See the Paradise
as Augie Farrell
(1989)
K-9
as Benny the Mule
(1989)
Homer and Eddie
as Cashier
(1988)
Mississippi Burning
as Lester Cowens
(1988)
Red Heat
as Night Clerk
(1987)
Angel Heart
as Det. Deimos
(1987)
Barfly
as Joe
(1987)
Shy People
as Paul
Crew
(2024)
F.U.A.I.
Producer