Elizabeth McGovern

Acting

Elizabeth McGovern

Born 1961-07-18 · Evanston, Illinois, USA

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 Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Evelyn Nesbit in the film Ragtime. In 1984, she starred in Sergio Leone's gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America as Robert De Niro's romantic interest, Deborah Gelly. In 1989, she played Mickey Rourke's girlfriend in Johnny Handsome, directed by Walter Hill, and the same year she appeared as a rebellious lesbian in Volker Schlöndorff's thriller The Handmaid's Tale.

Acting credits

Once Upon a Time in America poster
8.4

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 ghosts and regrets of his old life.

Once Upon a Time in America

1984

Kick-Ass poster
7.1

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, training or meaningful reason to do so.

Kick-Ass

2010

Clash of the Titans poster
5.9

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 volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus and unleash hell on earth. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, Perseus and his warriors will only survive if Perseus accepts his power as a god, defies fate and creates his own destiny.

Clash of the Titans

2010

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale poster
7.1

When Mary finds herself at the center of a public scandal and the family faces financial strife, the entire household grapples with the threat of social disgrace. The Crawleys must embrace change as the staff prepares for a new chapter with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

2025

Downton Abbey: A New Era poster
7.2

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 Hollywood director seeks to film his latest production at Downton.

Downton Abbey: A New Era

2022

Downton Abbey poster
7.1

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 will unleash scandal, romance and intrigue that will leave the future of Downton hanging in the balance.

Downton Abbey

2019

Woman in Gold poster
7.3

Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, takes on the government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family.

Woman in Gold

2015

The Commuter poster
6.4

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 around him.

The Commuter

2018

Ordinary People poster
7.4

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 extent of a suicide attempt. He is in therapy. Beth had always preferred his brother and is having difficulty being supportive to Conrad. Calvin is trapped between the two trying to hold the family together.

Ordinary People

1980

The Handmaid's Tale poster
6.1

In a dystopian, polluted right-wing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.

The Handmaid's Tale

1990

The Wife poster
7.1

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 Wife

2017

Johnny Handsome poster
6.4

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 straight, but he is really planning his revenge on the man who killed his mentor and sent him to prison.

Johnny Handsome

1989

Buffalo Soldiers poster
6.3

A criminal subculture operates among U.S. soldiers stationed in West Germany just before the fall of the Berlin wall.

Buffalo Soldiers

2002

Swung poster
5.4

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 writes for is going down and the pressure is on to find a story. While job hunting online, David stumbles across the perfect antidote to his boredom: a ‘Swingers’ site. The resulting inbox of lewd invitations on the home-laptop justifiably upsets Alice, until she realises this could be just the ‘story’ she needs. The idea of uncovering the swinging scene causes quite a stir in Alice’s office and, much to David’s chagrin, she is urged to pursue the story. Their first reluctant foray is an hysterically low-rent initiation, however, an unexpected upturn for David’s manhood is all the extra encouragement they need. As events accelerate beyond their control the once adoring couple become lost and fundamental questions are asked of their relationship.

Swung

2015

The House of Mirth poster
6.3

In early 20th century New York City, an impoverished socialite desperately seeks a suitable husband as she gradually finds herself betrayed by her friends and exiled from high society.

The House of Mirth

2000

The Bedroom Window poster
6.3

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 same night another girl is found murdered.

The Bedroom Window

1987

Downton Abbey Celebrates the Grand Finale poster
2.5

Stars of the beloved period drama Downton Abbey reunite at London's Savoy Hotel to share memories and behind-the-scenes tales, plus a sneak peek at the final film.

Downton Abbey Celebrates the Grand Finale

2025

She's Having a Baby poster
5.9

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 parents) expect from them. Do they want babies? Their parents certainly want them to. Is married life all that there is? Things certainly aren't helped by Jake's friend Davis, who always seems to turn up just in time to put a spanner in the works.

She's Having a Baby

1988

A Shock to the System poster
6.5

When experienced advertising executive Graham Marshall loses out on a promotion to a young man, he goes down in a path of vengeance.

A Shock to the System

1990

King of the Hill poster
6.8

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 hotel in St. Louis after his mother is committed to a sanatorium with tuberculosis. His father, a German immigrant and traveling salesman working for the Hamilton Watch Company, is off on long trips from which the boy cannot be certain he will return.

King of the Hill

1993

The Wings of the Dove poster
6.6

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 deceased mother has lost all her money in a marriage to a degenerate opium addict. When Kate meets a terminally ill American heiress named Millie traveling through Europe, she comes up with a conniving plan to have both love and wealth.

The Wings of the Dove

1997

The Favor poster
4.9

On the eve of her high school reunion, bored housewife Kathy convinces her single best friend Emily to seduce her old flame Tom, so she can get all the juicy details. But when Emily falls for Tom, it's like high school all over again!

The Favor

1994

And Mrs. poster
5.4

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 the land, and her loved ones' objections.

And Mrs.

2024

The Chaperone poster
6.2

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

Behind the camera