Charles Carson

Mr. Carson runs Downton Abbey's household with unyielding formality, insisting on proper form in everything from the placement of forks to the conduct of housemaids. As butler, he is the guardian of tradition and hierarchy, deeply loyal to the Crawley family, and visibly uneasy whenever the modern world threatens the order he has spent his life upholding.

Jim Carter plays rigidity with such warmth underneath that Carson's stiffness never curdles into mere comic starch. The writing keeps testing his principles against real affection—for Mrs. Hughes, for Lady Mary, for the servants he scolds—so every small softening lands. He's funniest and most moving in the same breath.