Elizabeth Corday

Elizabeth Corday
Alex Kingston as Elizabeth Corday
First appearance	September 25, 1997 (4x01, "Ambush")
Last appearance	April 02, 2009 (15x22, "And in the End")
Portrayed by	Alex Kingston
Information
Nickname(s)	Lizzie
Gender	Female
Occupation	Physician Surgeon
Title	Surgical Trauma Fellow (1997-1998) Surgical Intern (1998-1999) Surgical Attending (1999-2004) Associate Chief of Surgery (1999-2003) Chief of Surgery (2003-2004)
Family	Charles Corday (father) Isabelle Corday (mother)
Spouse(s)	Mark Greene (deceased)
Children	Ella Greene (daughter, with Mark) Rachel Greene (stepdaughter)
Relatives	Other family members
Nationality	English

Elizabeth Corday, MBBS, FRCS (married name Greene) is a fictional character in the television series ER. She was played by Alex Kingston and appeared from 1997 to 2004.

First appearing at the opening of season four in the episode "Ambush", Elizabeth Corday is a British surgeon who has moved to Chicago to gain more experience in trauma surgery. We learn in her first episode that she comes from a whole family of surgeons; Corday's grandfather was a surgeon, as is her father and, since there are no boys in her family, she took on that role. In a later episode we learn that her father is a Consultant surgeon at St. Thomas' Hospital, London. Corday's mother (played by Judy Parfitt) is an astrophysicist with whom she has a rather rocky relationship; Corday feels that her mother didn't spend enough time with her as a girl and that she was "raised by nannies and boarding schools", although she finds a more nuanced perspective on things once she becomes a mother herself. Though the two do seem to come to some kind of mutual agreement, the relationship is still strained. However, Elizabeth has a good relationship with her father, Charles (although he is hostile towards her mother, having been divorced over ten years prior).

Corday faces many problems in adjusting to the United States. During her first trauma surgery, she completely baffles the rest of the staff by using lots of British terms not used in America - for example, she asks them to "bleep Benton" (page Dr. Peter Benton), order an "FBC" (US term "CBC"), and perform a "tube thoracostomy" (US term "chest tube"). She also introduces herself as "Miss Corday", as is customary for members of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and not "Dr Corday". She nevertheless becomes popular among the other staff, both for her surgical skill and for her personality. She quickly gains a reputation for being unimpressed by status, an example being when she greets one eminent surgeon, Dr. Sam Breedlove, with "I knew you were old but I didn't know you were so short!" Luckily Breedlove responded in the positive (citing that he's always been short).