Courtney B. Vance (born March 12, 1960) is an American actor. He formerly starred as a regular in the NBC television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Ron Carver. His character was to be replaced by Marvin Gaye's daughter Nona Gaye but she left the show within a few days citing creative differences. She has since been temporarily replaced by Theresa Randle. Vance was born in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Detroit Country Day School, a fee-paying university-preparatory school, and later graduated from Harvard with a bachelor of arts degree and the Yale School of Drama with a Master of Fine Arts degree. While attending Harvard, Vance was already working as an actor at the Boston Shakespeare Company. He went on to earn two Tony Award nominations, each in Tony Award-winning productions. He was first nominated for his role in August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences and later for his lead role in John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation. Vance's feature-film roles have won him steady praise. His early credits include Hamburger Hill, The Hunt for Red October, and The Last Supper. 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 the independent film 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 Peeblesdocudrama Panther.