Martha Levinson

Martha Levinson (played by Shirley MacLaine) is the wealthy American mother of Cora Crawley. She is the widow of Isadore Levinson, who made his fortune as a dry goods merchant in Cincinnati. Socially ambitious and looked down upon by New York society as nouveau riche, she brought her only daughter to London in 1888 in order to marry a member of the British nobility. Cora has a strained relationship with her mother, who owns houses in New York and Newport. In the 2011 Christmas Special, after Sir Richard Carlisle threatened to reveal Lady Mary Crawley's secret, she considered going to America to stay with her American 'Grandmama' Martha Levinson, but decided not to go after Matthew Crawley proposed to her, to which she accepted.