Elizabeth McGovern

Biography:

McGovern was born on July 18, 1961, in Evanston, Illinois, and lived in Los Angeles for the majority of her early years. She attended the Juilliard School and the American Conservatory Theatre before making her feature film debut in Ordinary People (1980). She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Evelyn Nesbit in the 1981 film adaptation of Ragtime. After that, she starred in several important studio films, such as Once Upon a Time in America (1984), She’s Having a Baby (1987), The Bedroom Window (1987), The Handmaid’s Tale (1990), and The Wings of the Dove (1997). After years of studying guitar, McGovern founded the band Sadie and the Hotheads in 2007. Since 2016, the group has released four studio albums. Her role as Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham, in the British drama series Downton Abbey (2010–2015), for which she was nominated for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe, brought her more international recognition.