Biography
Elizabeth McGovern (born July 18, 1961) is an American film, television, and theater actress. In 1980, while studying at Juilliard, McGovern was offered a part in her first film, Ordinary People, in which she played the girlfriend of troubled teenager Timothy Hutton. The following year she completed her education as an actress at the American Conservatory Theatre and at The Juilliard School, and began to appear in plays, first Off-Broadway and later in famous theaters. In 1981, she earned an ...
Known For
Complete Filmography
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
2025
as Cora Crawley
When Mary finds herself at the center of a public scandal and the family faces financial trouble, the entire household grapples with the threat of soc...
And Mrs.
2024
as Margaret
When a reluctant bride-to-be's fiancé drops dead, she insists on going ahead with the wedding anyway – vowing to overcome public opinion, the law of t...
Downton Abbey: A New Era
2022
as Cora Crawley
The Crawley family goes on a grand journey to the south of France to uncover the mystery of the dowager countess's newly inherited villa. Meanwhile, a...
Downton Abbey
2019
as Cora Crawley
The beloved Crawleys and their intrepid staff prepare for the most important moment of their lives. A royal visit from the King and Queen of England w...
JFK Jr. and Carolyn's Wedding: The Lost Tapes
2019
as Staring
An inside glimpse at the fairy tale wedding of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette in 1996, including never-before-seen footage from the private ...
The Chaperone
2019
as Norma
In the early 1920s, a Kansas woman finds her life forever changed when she accompanies a young dancer on her fame-seeking journey to New York City.
The Chaperone
2019
Producer
In the early 1920s, a Kansas woman finds her life forever changed when she accompanies a young dancer on her fame-seeking journey to New York City.
The Wife
2018
as Elaine Mozell
A wife questions her life choices as she travels to Stockholm with her husband, where he is slated to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The Commuter
2018
as Karen MacCauley
A businessman, on his daily commute home, gets unwittingly caught up in a criminal conspiracy that threatens not only his life but the lives of those ...
Showing Roots
2016
as Shirley
Set in the year 1977, two women look to integrate their small town, inspired by the miniseries "Roots" as it hits the airwaves.
The Queen At 90
2016
as Narrator
"Downton Abbey" star Elizabeth McGovern narrates an intimate look at the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II as we celebrate Her Majesty's 90th birth...
Unexpected
2015
as Carolyn
An inner-city high school teacher discovers she is pregnant at the same time as one of her most promising students and the two develop an unlikely fri...
Swung
2015
as Dolly Adams
David’s life is on the slide: he’s broke, in the middle of a divorce and ‘can’t get it up’. His girlfriend, Alice, is his rock, but the magazine she ...
Woman in Gold
2015
as Judge Florence-Marie Cooper
Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, takes on the Austrian government to recover a world famous painting of her aunt plundered by the Nazis ...
Screen Goddesses
2012
as Narrator
With the beginnings of Hollywood, the star system was born with an archetypal bad girl - the vampish Theda Bara - and the good girl - the blazingly si...
Cheerful Weather for the Wedding
2012
as Mrs. Thatcham
England, 1932. Today is Dolly Thatcham's wedding day, and her family is arriving at the manor house with all the cheerfulness, chaos and grievances th...
Angels Crest
2011
as Jane
The small working-class town of Angels Crest is a tight-knit community resting quietly in one of the vast and stunningly beautiful valleys of the Rock...
Wallis Simpson: The Secret Letters
2011
as Wallis Simpson (Voice)
This film examines recently discovered letters written by socialite Wallis Simpson that reveal her secret love, and chart her fear as she found hersel...
Nature Amazing Places Hawaii
2010
Writer
Program One KILAUEA: MOUNTAIN OF FIRE Ecosystems on Big Island Face No Small Challenge Kilauea, violent and beautiful, destructive and creative, con...
Kick-Ass
2010
as Mrs. Lizewski
Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan who one day decides to become a super-hero, even though he has no powers, trainin...
Clash of the Titans
2010
as Marmara
Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus is helpless to save his family from Hades, vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing to lose, Perseus vo...
Inconceivable
2008
as Tallulah 'Tutu' Williams
A physician who helps his clients bring new life into the world is accused of an ethical breach that's also criminal in this independent drama. Dr. Fr...
A Room with a View
2007
as Mrs Honeychurch
When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperon Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George st...
Daphne
2007
as Ellen Doubleday
Set during the years between the "Rebecca" trial and the writing of Du Maurier's short story "The Birds", including her relationship with her husband ...
The Truth
2006
as Donna
An outrageous murder-mystery for the 'Me Generation'. Seven young strangers go to a spiritual retreat for a journey of personal growth, taking in jeal...
Remembering Ragtime
2004
as Evelyn Nesbit (archive footage)
Memories from the making of the classic Milos Forman film "Ragtime".
Thursday the 12th
2003
as Candice Hopper
In this two-part Rashomon-esque mini-series, a TV journalist investigates a rich politician and his family after a dead body is found on their propert...
Buffalo Soldiers
2002
as Mrs. Berman
A criminal subculture operates among U.S. soldiers stationed in West Germany just before the fall of the Berlin wall.
Hawkins
2001
as Susie Hawkins
Hawkins was an original film for BBC Television about a man who lives a double life, as a Nietzschean Philosophy Lecturer and as a Detective who is fa...
The Flamingo Rising
2001
as Edna Lee
When Hubert Lee decides to open the world's largest drive-in movie theater across the street from a funeral parlor, a feud erupts between Lee and Turn...
The House of Mirth
2000
as Mrs. Carry Fisher
In early 20th century New York City, an impoverished socialite desperately seeks a suitable husband as she gradually finds herself betrayed by her fri...
Manila
2000
as Elizabeth
Due to a delayed flight a group of German flight passengers have to wait in the hall of the airport of Manila. The crowd is quite mixed, ranging from ...
The Misadventures of Margaret
1998
as Till Turner
A timid, insecure popular author with an overly-attentive professor husband decide to write an erotic novel. With encouragement from her sister and a ...
The Man with Rain in His Shoes
1998
as Diane
Victor Bukowski is an out-of-work actor with problems. He's got a lousy agent, he has a habit of falling out with directors and he's still in love wit...
Clover
1997
as Sara Kate
Sara marries Gaten a single father who is African-American. Not long after they're married Gaten dies. So Sara has to take care of Gaten's daughter, C...
The Wings of the Dove
1997
as Susan Stringham
Kate is secretly betrothed to a struggling journalist, Merton Densher. But she knows her Aunt Maude will never approve of the match, since Kate's dece...
The Summer of Ben Tyler
1996
as Celia Rayburn
Set early during World War II, the film has a lot to say about love, honor, relationships, commitment and power. Keeping their promise to their dying ...
Broken Glass
1996
as Margaret Hyman
Adaptation of Arthur Miller's play set in Brooklyn 1938, focusing on the marriage of Sylvia and Phillip Gellburg against the backdrop of Kristallnacht...
Broken Trust
1995
as Janice Dillon
A scrupulously honest judge finds he's a pawn in a federal sting to ferret out corrupt members of the bench, many of whom are his friends.
Wings of Courage
1995
as Noëlle Guillaumet
In 1930 South America, a small group of French pilots struggle to prove they can offer a reliable airmail service over the Andes. When one of the youn...
The Favor
1994
as Emily
On the eve of her high school reunion, bored housewife Kathy convinces her single best friend Emily to seduce an old flame Tom, so she can get all the...
The Changeling
1993
as Beatrice-Joanna
Just days before her wedding, Beatrice-Joanna has a chance encounter with Alsemero, and realizes that she has met her one true love. To marry the man ...
Me and Veronica
1993
as Fanny
Two sisters share a disturbing family secret.
King of the Hill
1993
as Lydia
Based on the Depression-era bildungsroman memoir of writer A. E. Hotchner, the film follows the story of a boy struggling to survive on his own in a h...
Tales from Hollywood
1992
as Helen Schwartz
A slightly ironical description of the colony of German artists in Los Angeles, who had to leave their country during the Nazi-regime. A young playwri...
Tune in Tomorrow...
1990
as Elena Quince
Martin works at the local radio station, which just hired a new scriptwriter with a reputation for great drama, Pedro Carmichael. Martin’s aunt Julia,...
Women and Men: Stories of Seduction
1990
as Vicki
This trio of tales, based on classic short stories, chronicles the complicated relations between the sexes.
A Shock to the System
1990
as Stella Anderson
Madison Avenue executive Graham Marshall has paid his dues. A talented and devoted worker, he has suffered through mounting bills and a nagging wife w...
The Handmaid's Tale
1990
as Moira
In a dystopian, polluted right-wing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.
Johnny Handsome
1989
as Donna McCarty
A career criminal who has been deformed since birth is given a new face by a kindly doctor and paroled from prison. It appears that he has gone straig...
She's Having a Baby
1988
as Kristy Briggs
Jake and Kristy Briggs are newlyweds. Being young, they are perhaps a bit unprepared for the full reality of marriage and all that it (and their paren...
The Bedroom Window
1987
as Denise
Baltimore, Maryland. Sylvia sees a girl being attacked from her lover Terry's bedroom window. The assailant flees and his victim is saved. But that sa...
Native Son
1986
as Mary Dalton
In 1940s Chicago, a young black man takes a job as a chauffeur to a white family, which takes a turn for the worse when he accidentally kills the teen...
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1984
as Snow White
Snow White must flee from her evil stepmother. She's taken in by the lovable seven dwarves. Will the wicked queen be able to get rid of her rival?
Once Upon a Time in America
1984
as Deborah Gelly
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the gh...
Racing with the Moon
1984
as Caddie Winger
In a small coastal California town, Henry and Nicky are pals from blue collar families with only a short time before they ship off to World War II. He...
Lovesick
1983
as Chloe Allen
Sigmund Freud's ghost advises a married New York psychiatrist in love with a patient.
Ragtime
1981
as Evelyn Nesbit
A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nos...
Ordinary People
1980
as Jeannine Pratt
Beth, Calvin, and their son Conrad are living in the aftermath of the death of the other son. Conrad is overcome by grief and misplaced guilt to the e...
Switzerland
N/A
Patricia Highsmith’s late life solitude in the Swiss Alps is interrupted by Edward, a young literary agent sent by the writer’s relentless publishing ...