Pruitt Taylor Vince (b. July 5, 1960 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA) is an award-winning American character actor who has made many appearances in film and television.
Vince got his start in an unusual fashion, when a simple computer error in his high school registration landed him in an acting class, a subject which Vince has never left.
His film debut was in Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law, but his scenes wound up on the cutting room floor. He had no difficulty obtaining more film roles, and had prominent supporting roles in a number of major films, including a turn as a dimwitted Ku Klux Klan member in Mississippi Burning. Vince also had a big role in Nobody's Fool as the co-worker and best friend of Paul Newman's character. He had his first lead in James Mangold's independent film Heavy, which highlighted Vince's strengths as an actor who can convey a simple emotion with his eyes, playing a sweet, silent overweight cook harboring a crush on a waitress (Liv Tyler).
Vince is probably best known for his role in Oliver Stone’s JFK as key assassination witness Lee Bowers to whom he bore a strong resemblance.
Vince often alternates roles of both good and bad characters, like a lovable small town pub owner in Beautiful Girls, a schizophrenic serial killer with multiple personalities in Identity (a second collaboration with director Mangold) and a pompous sheriff in Nurse Betty. Vince also played a Southern cop in Angel Heart and Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers . He received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his turn as a serial killer in the TV series Murder One.
In addition to his award-winning turn in "Murder One," Vince also has made guest appearances on numerous TV shows, ranging from The X-Files, Miami Vice, Quantum Leap, Chicago Hope, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Highlander in the season 4 episode "The Innocent" as a retarded immortal named Mikey Bellows.
Divorced from his first marriage, he remarried in 2003 to Julianne Mattelig.
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