Cora Crawley (nee Levinson), the Countess of Grantham, is a character on the ITV/PBS series Downton Abbey. She was played by American actress Elizabeth McGovern. When the role was originally conceived, actress Gillian Anderson (The X Files) was slated to take the role of Cora, but she declined the role. When that happened, actress Elizabeth McGovern, herself an American who moved to the UK, got the part.