Role seemed like fate
January 13, 1997
Jam!
Being chosen to play a minister in The Preacher's Wife seemed like fate to actor Courtney B. Vance, who embraced the Baptist church after his father's suicide.
"This role came to me at this particular time in my life for a reason," Vance says in the Jan. 20 People magazine. "There's a higher power at work. He'll reveal to you what He wants you to do."
Vance turned to prayer after his father killed himself in 1990, and the actor recently was baptized at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where he went to observe services to prepare for The Preacher's Wife.
Vance, 36, who plays the preacher married to Whitney Houston's character in the film, is romantically involved with actress Angela Bassett in real life.
"We're like old friends who all of a sudden looked up and said, 'Hmmmm,'" Vance said. "Gradually it dawned on us that we like each other."
In December, the couple announced their engagement. Vance said he made his marriage proposal the old-fashioned way: "Down on one knee."
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