Before Dan Stevens (and his Piercing Blue Eyes) smoldered as the romantic hero of Downton Abbey, he was a Cambridge alum who started his career on the stage. Stevens, who was playing tragic figures like Macbeth before he was even out of college, honed his craft through a series of Shakespearean roles. Then he got his TV break in the miniseries Frankenstein in 2004. But Matthew Crawley is not Stevens’ first foray as the conflicted everyman everyone loves. In 2008, he played Edward Ferrars (of course) in the Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Sense & Sensibility. We won’t spoil you, but as many of you know Stevens didn’t return for the fourth series of Downton Abbey.