Who plays Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham?

Elizabeth McGovern plays Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham, in Downton Abbey. Cora is the American-born wife of Robert Crawley and the mother of Mary, Edith and Sybil, making McGovern one of the central figures in the ensemble cast.

In the story, Cora was born Cora Levinson and came from a wealthy American family. Her fortune helped stabilise the financially strained Crawley estate after her marriage to Robert around 1890. This makes her an example of a so-called “dollar princess”—an American heiress whose money helped support a titled British family.

Cora is sometimes mistaken for the Dowager Countess, Violet Crawley, played by Maggie Smith. Unlike Violet, Cora is Robert’s wife and the younger generation’s mother. Her character becomes especially active during the First World War, when Downton is converted into a convalescent home, and later when she takes a leading role in the local hospital.