Elizabeth McGovern's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Downton Abbey (UK) Cora, Count… Three Moons Over Milford Laura Davis Freezing (UK) Elizabeth The Scarlet Pimpernel (UK) Marguerite … If Not for You Jessie Kent The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H. Helen Shaw

Main Movie Roles 2010 - Clash of the Titans 2010 - Kick-Ass 2008 - Inconceivable 2001 - Buffalo Soldiers 2000 - The House of Mirth 1997 - The Wings of the Dove 1993 - King of the Hill 1990 - A Shock to the System 1990 - The Handmaid's Tale 1990 - Tune in Tomorrow... 1989 - Johnny Handsome 1988 - She's Having a Baby 1987 - The Bedroom Window 1984 - Racing with the Moon 1984 - Once Upon a Time in America 1981 - Ragtime 1981 - Ordinary People

BIOGRAPHY:

Daughter of a law professor at Northwestern, she moved with her family to Los Angeles when he transferred to UCLA. She began acting in school plays at North Hollywood High, graduated from The Oakwood School and then continued her stage training at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and the Juilliard School of Dramatic Art in New York. Following a pleasant screen debut in Robert Redford (I)'s Oscar-winning Ordinary People (1980), McGovern gave a great performance as Evelyn Nesbit in Ragtime (1981) for which she earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress. She has continued performing on stage between film assignments rather than concentrate on being a film star.


TRIVIA:

• Has lived in West London (UK) since 1992.
• Dropped out of college when she was studying acting at Julliard in order to accept the ingenue role in _Ordinary People (1980)_ (qv).
• Sings and plays guitar in her own band "Sadie And The Hotheads".
• Measurements: 34B-23-32 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
• Was engaged to 'Sean Penn (I)' (qv) after falling in love on the set of _Racing with the Moon (1984)_ (qv).
• Has a brother, Monty.
• Her younger sister Cammie McGovern is a novelist, whose latest novel [2006] is "Eye Contact."
• As a young actress on the New York stage, McGovern was required in one play to pray over some candles that were set on a bed. Realizing that the bed had caught fire halfway through her monologue, McGovern kept talking while trying to pat out the flames. She thought she had the situation pretty well under control, when firefighters suddenly arrived onstage to clear the theater.