 Double commutant theorem for star-algebras

A unital subalgebra $A\subseteq \mathrm{End}(V)$ closed under the adjoint operator, on a finite-dimensional real or complex inner product space, equals its double commutant of an operator algebra. Here is a proof that does not require a classification of algebras. For $N=\dim V$, choose a basis $(v_1,\dots ,v_N)$ and let $W=\{(a{v}_1,\dots ,a{v}_N):a\in A\}\subseteq V^N$. The diagonal action of $A$ preserves $W$ and $W^{\perp }$, so the orthogonal projection onto $W$ commutes with that action. Each matrix entry of this projection belongs to $A^{\prime }$. Hence the diagonal action of $b\in A^{\prime \prime }$ commutes with the projection and preserves $W$. Since $1\in A$, the tuple $(v_1,\dots ,v_N)$ belongs to $W$, and therefore $(b{v}_1,\dots ,b{v}_N)=(a{v}_1,\dots ,a{v}_N)$ for one $a\in A$. This implies $b=a$. Without the unital hypothesis the conclusion is $A^{\prime \prime }=A+\mathbb{F}1$.