Pruitt Taylor Vince Biography

Pruitt Taylor Vince (born July 5, 1960) is an American character actor who has made many appearances in film and television.

Early life

Vince was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He attended Louisiana State University and began acting due to a mistake; a computer error in his high school registration scheduled him in an acting class.

Personal Life

Vince has a condition called nystagmus which is the involuntary movement of the eye.

Career

Vince made his film debut in Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law, but his scenes wound up on the cutting room floor. He had prominent supporting roles in a number of major films, including a turn as a dimwitted Ku Klux Klan member in Mississippi Burning, Lee Bowers in JFK, and the main character's best friend in Nobody's Fool. He also starred in Giuseppe Tornatore's Legend of 1900 alongside Tim Roth. He had his first lead role in James Mangold's independent film Heavy, playing a sweet, silent overweight cook harboring a crush on a waitress (Liv Tyler).

Vince often alternates roles of both heroic and villainous characters, like a lovable small town pub owner in Beautiful Girls, a serial killer with multiple personalities in Identity (a second collaboration with director Mangold), the disheveled gossip columnist in s1mone, and a pompous sheriff in Nurse Betty. He can also be seen in Love from Ground Zero as Walter. Vince also played a Southern cop in Angel Heart, a kidnapper's assistant in Trapped, and a deputy prison warden in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers.

Other film titles include the neo-noir China Moon and the psychological horror film Jacob's Ladder.

Guest appearances on TV shows include Deadwood, Alias, The X-Files, Miami Vice, Quantum Leap, Chicago Hope, 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.

Awards

Vince received an Emmy Award in 1997 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role as serial killer Clifford Banks during the second season of the television series Murder One.

Filmography

List of acting performances in film and television
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1987	Angel Heart	Det. Deimos
	Shy People	Paul
	Barfly	Joe
1988	Red Heat	Night Clerk
	Miami Vice	Cruz	Episode "Bad Timing"
	Mississippi Burning	Lester Cowens
1989	K-9	Benny the Mule
	I Know My First Name is Steven	Irving Murphy	TV movie
	Homer and Eddie	Cashier
1990	Wild at Heart	Buddy
	Fear	Shadow Man
	Come See the Paradise	Augie Farrell
	In the Heat of the Night	Leonard Grissom	Episode "Perversions of Justice"
	Jacob's Ladder	Paul
1991	Sweet Poison	Coyle	TV movie
	Dead in the Water	Lou Rescetti	TV movie
	JFK	Lee Bowers
1992	Till Death Us Do Part	Michael Brockington	TV movie
	Quantum Leap	Hank Pilcher	Episode "Moments to Live - May 4, 1985"
1993	Sisters	Joe Abruzzia	Episode "Things Are Tough All Over"
1994	China Moon	Daryl Jeeters
	City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold	Bud
	Natural Born Killers	Deputy Warden Kavanaugh
	Nobody's Fool	Rub Squeers
1995	Heavy	Victor Modino
	Chicago Hope	Walter Platt	Episode "Small Sacrifices"
	The Marshal	Two-Cats	Episode "Buy Hard"
	Highlander	Mikey	Episode "The Innocent"
	Under the Hula Moon	Bob
1996	The Cottonwood
	Beautiful Girls	Stanley 'Stinky' Womack
	The X-Files	Gerry Schnauz	Episode "Unruhe"
1997	Night Sins	Olie Swain	TV movie
	Murder One: Diary of a Serial Killer	Clifford Banks	TV mini-series
	The End of Violence	Frank Cray
	Murder One	Clifford Banks	6 episodes
	A Further Gesture	Scott
	Cold Around the Heart	Johnny 'Cokebottles' Costello
1998	Dr. Dolittle	Patient at Hammersmith	Uncredited
	The Legend of 1900	Max Tooney
	Love from Ground Zero	Walter
1999	Mumford	Henry Follett
2000	Nurse Betty	Ballard
	The Cell	Dr. Reid
2001	Gideon's Crossing	James Tooley	Episode "The Lottery"
	Mental Hygiene	Mr. Adams	Short
	Thieves	Roy Lichter	Episode "Dey Got De Degas"
2002	13 Moons	Owen
	Rebellion	Vito
	S1m0ne	Max Sayer
	Trapped	Marvin
2003	Identity	Malcolm Rivers
	L.A. Confidential	Sid Hudgens	TV movie
	The Handler	Ray / Sergei	Episode "Street Boss"
	Monster	Gene / Stuttering "John"
	Alias	Campbell / Schapker	Episode "Breaking Point"
2004	Touching Evil	Cyril Kemp	5 episodes
	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Marty Gleason	Episode "Swap Meet"
2005	Constantine	Father Hennessey
	Drop Dead Sexy	Spider
2005-2006	Deadwood	Mose Manuel	10 episodes
2006	House	George	Episode "Que Sera Sera"
2007	When a Man Falls in the Forest	Travis
	Captivity	Ben Dexter
2008	Canterbury's Law	Louis Minot	Episode "Baggage"
	The Echo	Joseph
2009	The Smell of Success	Cleveland Clod
	In the Electric Mist	Lou Girard
	Don McKay	Mel
	Leaves of Grass	Big Joe Sharpe
	Medium	Peter Winant	Episode "Deja Vu All Over Again"
2010	Mysterious Island	Gideon Spilett
	Infamous	The Patriarch	3 episodes
	Memphis Beat	Martin Matthews	Episode "I Want to Be Free"
2010-2013	The Mentalist	J.J. LaRoche	12 episodes
2011	Stanley DeBrock	Earl Wayne
	Flypaper	Wyatt 'Jelly' Jenkins
	The Cape	Goggles	Episode "Goggles and Hicks"
	Cameraman	Jeremy
	Drive Angry	Roy
	On the Inside	Ben Marshal
	Butter	Ned Eaten
	Creature	Grover
	The Walking Dead	Otis	Season 2 (recurring role; 3 episodes)
2012	Justified	Glen Fogle	Episode "Harlan Roulette"
	Bending the Rules	Happy
	Jules Verne's Mysterious Island
	Brake	Driver / Boss Terrorist (voice)
	Bones	Haze Jackson	Episode "The Prisoner in the Pipe"
	Hawaii Five-0	Richard Branche	Episode "Ha'alele"
2013
	Homefront	Werks
	Dark Tourist	Carl Marznap
	Beautiful Creatures	Mr. Lee
	13 Sins	Vogler
2014	True Blood	Finn	5 episodes
2014	59 Seconds	Robert	Post-production
2015	Heroes Reborn	Casper Abraham	7 episodes
2015	The Devil's Candy	Ray Smilie
2017	The Life and Death of John Gotti		Filming