Michelle Dockery’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Michelle Suzanne Dockery (born 15 December 1981) is an English actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Lady Mary Crawley in the ITV (UK) and PBS (U.S.) drama series Downton Abbey (2010–15), for which she was nominated for three consecutive Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. She made her professional stage debut in His Dark Materials in 2004. For her role as Eliza Doolittle in the 2007 London revival of Pygmalion, she was nominated for the Evening Standard Award.
For her role in the 2009 play Burnt by the Sun, she earned an Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her other notable stage credits include Pillars of the Community (2005) and Hamlet (2010). She has also appeared in the films Hanna (2011), Anna Karenina (2012) and Non-Stop (2014). As of late autumn 2016, Dockery is portraying the lead role of a drug-addicted, alcoholic, American con artist in the U.S. drama series Good Behavior on the U.S. basic-cable network TNT.

Early life

Dockery was born at Rush Green Hospital in Rush Green, London, to Lorraine (née Witton) and Michael Francis Dockery, a lorry driver and later an environmental analyst.

She has two older sisters, Louise and Joanne. She was educated first at Chadwell Heath Academy, and later at the Finch Stage School.

After her A Levels, she enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she was awarded the Gold Medal for Drama at her graduation in 2004.

Career

Stage

Dockery was a member of the National Youth Theatre. She made her professional debut in His Dark Materials at the Royal National Theatre in 2004. In 2006, she was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award for her performance as Dina Dorf in Pillars of the Community at the National Theatre. She appeared in Burnt by the Sun at the National Theatre, for which she received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

She won second prize at the Ian Charleson Awards for her performance as Eliza Doolittle in Peter Hall’s production of Pygmalion at the Theatre Royal, Bath, which toured the UK and transferred to The Old Vic in 2008, and for the same production was nominated Best Newcomer at the Evening Standard Awards 2008.

In 2010, she played Ophelia in Hamlet at the Crucible Theatre alongside John Simm.

Film and television

Dockery made her television debut as Betty in Fingersmith in 2005. In 2006, she starred as Susan Sto Helit in a two-part adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s novel Hogfather. In 2008, Dockery played Kathryn in Channel 4’s The Red Riding Trilogy and played the guest lead of tormented rape victim Gemma Morrison in BBC’s Waking the Dead. In 2009, she appeared in the two-part Cranford Christmas special for the BBC, and starred as the lead character in a modernised BBC adaptation of The Turn of the Screw with future Downton Abbey co-star Dan Stevens.

Dockery came to public prominence in 2010 when she played Lady Mary Crawley in Julian Fellowes’ series Downton Abbey. Downton Abbey was filmed from February-August 2010-15. The series was broadcast on ITV September-November, with a special Christmas night episode for Series 2-6 in 2011-15, with a later airing schedule in the U.S. for PBS. For her role in the series, she received three Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe nomination.

Her first big screen role was as False Marissa in Hanna (2011). In 2012, she appeared as Princess Myagkaya in the film adaptation of Anna Karenina and starred with Charlotte Rampling in a two-part dramatisation of William Boyd’s spy thriller Restless on BBC One. In January 2014, she appeared in the film Non-Stop.

In 2014, she was made Fellow of the Guildhall School in recognition of her achievements in television. In 2014, Dockery was listed in The Sunday Times Britain’s 500 Most Influential People, which is a compilation of the most significant individuals in the UK who have demonstrated outstanding qualities of influence, achievement and inspiration.

Beginning in November 2016, Michelle began starring in the lead role of Letty Dobesh in Good Behavior, an American drama series based on the novella series by Blake Crouch. Letty, who uses the surname of “Raines” as an alias, is an American con artist who is wrestling with addictions to drugs and alcohol, all the while trying to shake her former Latin lover, who re-appears in her life and who wants in on her game. But simultaneously, he is also genuinely trying to help her kick her demons for good. The 10-episode first season, airing on U.S. basic-cable network TNT, was filmed in and around Wilmington, North Carolina.

Dockery also starred in the upcoming British drama film, The Sense of an Ending, based on the Booker-winning novel by Julian Barnes.

Music

Dockery trained as a singer. She sang at the 50th Anniversary of Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London and has occasionally sung with Sadie and the Hotheads, a band formed by Elizabeth McGovern, who plays her mother in Downton Abbey. Dockery cites her musical influences as Peggy Lee, Melody Gardot and Billie Holiday in her more melancholy moods.

Charity work

On World Humanitarian Day 2014, Oxfam announced Dockery as its first ever Humanitarian Ambassador. Dockery is also a patron of Changing Faces and supports a host of other charities.

In 2014, along with 8 other A-list stars, Dockery was featured in an exclusive short film for Stand Up to Cancer, spreading the urgent message that we need to act now to accelerate new cancer treatments to UK patients and save more lives.

Personal life

Dockery’s Downton Abbey co-star, Irish actor Allen Leech introduced her to a friend, John Dineen, in May 2013. They were first photographed in public together by paparazzi in August 2013 in Venice, Italy. There had been other public appearances of the couple, including Wimbledon, the US Open, around New York City and the Cartier Queen’s Cup in 2014, where Dineen appeared thinner. Dockery herself did not speak of Dineen publicly, other than a magazine interview in 2014: “I have a wonderful man in my life from Ireland.”

It was reported that the couple were engaged on Valentine’s Day 2015. She wore her engagement ring two days later during the first table script read of series six of Downton Abbey on 16 February. Someone on the set then leaked to the media that Dockery was showing her engagement ring to fellow cast mates and “was over the moon”. Dockery’s spokesman never made an announcement regarding this. Despite the engagement, the couple was not publicly photographed together at all in 2015.

In December 2015, Dockery and other castmates made several appearances on American talk shows to promote the final season of Downton. On 9 December, she suddenly left her U.S. media tour and was photographed by paparazzi arriving at a London airport on 10 December by herself. She skipped the 11 December appearance on The View where host Joy Behar, unaware that Dockery had flown to her fiancé’s deathbed, asked an uncomfortable Allen Leech about “playing Cupid” and setting Dockery up with his friend, Dineen. Leech made no mention of Dineen’s illness or grave condition. On 13 December 2015, Dineen died from a rare cancer, which had been diagnosed earlier in the year, and for which he had sought experimental treatment in Germany while Dockery was filming Downton Abbey. The type of cancer was not disclosed.

Dineen died in Marymount Hospice, Curraheen, County Cork, two days before Dockery’s 34th birthday and four days before what would have been his 35th birthday, with Dockery and his family at his bedside. A private funeral was arranged on the day between Dockery and Dineen’s birthdays. She sang “The Folks Who Live on the Hill”, and told the mourners that Dineen had been “my friend, my hero, my king, my everything”.

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

Awards and nominations