Cary Elwes facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Cary Elwes
Elwes in 2015
Born	(1962-10-26) 26 October 1962 (age 62) Westminster, London, England
Alma mater	Sarah Lawrence College
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1979–present
Spouse(s)	Lisa Marie Kurbikoff ​ (m. 2000)​
Children	1
Parent(s)	Dominick Elwes Tessa Kennedy
Relatives	Cassian Elwes (brother) Damian Elwes (brother)

Ivan Simon Cary Elwes (/ˈɛlwɪs/; born 26 October 1962) is an English actor. He starred as Westley in The Princess Bride (1987), and also had lead roles in films such as Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) and the Saw series. The accolades he has received include nominations for a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Satellite Awards. Elwes' other performances in films include Glory (1989), Days of Thunder (1990), Hot Shots! (1991), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Twister (1996), Kiss the Girls (1997), Liar Liar (1997), Shadow of the Vampire (2000), The Cat's Meow (2001), Ella Enchanted (2004), Pope John Paul II (2005), No Strings Attached (2011), Burning at Both Ends (2022), BlackBerry, and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (both 2023).

Elwes has appeared on television in a number of series including The X-Files, Seinfeld, From the Earth to the Moon, Psych, and Life in Pieces. In 2019, he appeared in the Netflix drama series Stranger Things, the Amazon Prime comedy series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and in 2024, he appeared in the Paramount+ comedy series Knuckles. Elwes has written a memoir of his time working on The Princess Bride called As You Wish, which was published in 2014.

Early life and education

Ivan Simon Cary Elwes was born on 26 October 1962 in Westminster, London. He is the youngest of three sons of portrait painter Dominic Elwes and interior designer and socialite Tessa Kennedy. Elwes is the brother of artist Damian Elwes and film producers Cassian Elwes and Milica Kastner. His stepfather, Elliott Kastner, was an American film producer and the first American to set up independent film production in the United Kingdom. His paternal grandfather was the portrait painter Simon Elwes, whose own father was the diplomat and tenor Gervase Elwes (1866–1921). Elwes has English, Irish, Scottish, Croatian-Jewish, and Serbian ancestry, the latter two from his maternal grandmother, Daška McLean, whose second husband, Billy McLean, was an operative for Special Operations Executive during World War II.

One of Elwes's relatives is the British miser John Elwes, who was the inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (1843), having been referenced by Charles Dickens himself in chapter six of his last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend. Elwes himself played five roles in the 2009 film adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Through his maternal grandfather, Elwes is also related to Sir Alexander William "Blackie" Kennedy, one of the first photographers to document the archaeological site of Petra following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Elwes was brought up as a Catholic and was an altar boy at Westminster Cathedral. His paternal relatives include such clerics as Dudley Charles Cary-Elwes (1868–1932), the Bishop of Northampton and Abbot Columba Cary-Elwes (Ampleforth Abbey, Saint Louis Abbey). He discussed this in an interview while he was filming the 2005 CBS television film Pope John Paul II, in which he played the young priest Karol Wojtyła.

Elwes's parents divorced when he was four years old. ..... He was educated at Harrow School, and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. In 1981, he moved to the United States to study acting at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. While living there, Elwes studied acting at both the Actors Studio and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute under the tutelage of Al Pacino's mentor, Charlie Laughton (not to be confused with English actor Charles Laughton). As a teenager, he also worked as a production assistant on the films Absolution, Octopussy, and Superman, where he was assigned to Marlon Brando. When Elwes introduced himself to the actor, Brando insisted on calling him "Rocky" after Rocky Marciano.

Career

1984–1999

Props from the film The Princess Bride (1987)

Elwes made his acting debut in 1984 with Marek Kanievska's film Another Country, which was loosely based on the English boarding school exploits of British spies Burgess, Philby and MacLean. He played James Harcourt, a gay student. He went on to play Guilford Dudley in the British historical drama film Lady Jane, opposite Helena Bonham Carter. He was then cast as stable-boy-turned-swashbuckler Westley in Rob Reiner's fantasy-comedy The Princess Bride (1987), which was based on the novel of the same name by William Goldman. It was a modest box office success, but received critical acclaim. As a result of years of reviews, it earned a score of 97% on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. Since being released on home video and television, the film has become a cult classic.

Elwes continued to work steadily, varying between dramatic roles, such as in the Oscar-winning Glory (1989), and comedic roles, as in Hot Shots! (1991). He played a rival driver to Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder (1990). In 1993, he starred as Robin Hood in Mel Brooks's comedy Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Elwes then appeared in supporting roles in such films as Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), The Crush (1993), The Jungle Book (1994), Twister (1996), Liar Liar (1997), and Kiss the Girls. In 1999, he portrayed famed theatre and film producer John Houseman for Tim Robbins in his ensemble film based on Orson Welles's musical, Cradle Will Rock. Following that, he travelled to Luxembourg to work with John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe in Shadow of the Vampire.

Elwes made his first television appearance in 1996 as David Lookner on Seinfeld. Two years later he played astronaut Michael Collins in the Golden Globe Award-winning HBO miniseries From the Earth To the Moon. The following year Elwes was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for his portrayal of Colonel James Burton in The Pentagon Wars directed by Richard Benjamin. In 1999, he guest starred as Dr. John York in an episode of the television series The Outer Limits.

2000–2009

Elwes in 2010

In 2001, he co-starred in Peter Bogdanovich's ensemble film The Cat's Meow portraying film mogul Thomas Ince, who died mysteriously while vacationing with William Randolph Hearst on his yacht. Shortly afterward he received another Golden Satellite Award nomination for his work on the ensemble NBC Television film Uprising opposite Jon Voight directed by Jon Avnet. Elwes had a recurring role in the final season (from 2001 to 2002) of Chris Carter's hit series The X-Files as FBI Assistant Director Brad Follmer. In 2003 Elwes portrayed Kerry Max Cook in the off-Broadway play The Exonerated in New York, directed by Bob Balaban (18–23 March 2003).

In 2004, Elwes starred in the horror–thriller Saw which, at a budget of a little over $1 million, grossed over $100 million worldwide. The same year he appeared in Ella Enchanted, this time as the villain, not the hero. ..... The following year, Elwes played the young Karol Wojtyła in the CBS television film Pope John Paul II. The TV film was highly successful not only in North America but also in Europe, where it broke box office records in the late Pope's native Poland and became the first film ever to break $1 million in three days. He made an uncredited appearance as Sam Green, the man who introduced Andy Warhol to Edie Sedgwick, in the 2006 film Factory Girl. In 2007, he appeared in Garry Marshall's Georgia Rule opposite Jane Fonda.

In 2007, he made a guest appearance on the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Dependent" as a Mafia lawyer. In 2009, he played the role of Pierre Despereaux, an international art thief, in the fourth-season premiere of Psych. Also in 2009 Elwes joined the cast of Robert Zemeckis's motion capture adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol portraying five roles. That same year he was chosen by Steven Spielberg to appear in his motion capture adaptation of Belgian artist Hergé's popular comic strip The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. Elwes's voice-over work includes the narrator in James Patterson's audiobook The Jester, as well as characters in film and television animations such as Quest for Camelot, Pinky and The Brain, Batman Beyond, and the English versions of the Studio Ghibli films, Porco Rosso, Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns. For the 2004 video game The Bard's Tale, he served as screenwriter, improviser, and voice actor of the main character The Bard. In 2009, Elwes reunited with Jason Alexander for the Indian film, Delhi Safari. The following year Elwes portrayed the part of Gremlin Gus in Disney's video game, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. In 2014, he appeared in Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey as the voice of scientists Edmond Halley and Robert Hooke.

2010–present

Elwes at Comic-Con in 2013

In 2010, he returned to the Saw franchise in Saw 3D (2010), the seventh film in the series, as Dr. Lawrence Gordon. In 2010, he returned to Psych, reprising his role in the second half of the fifth season, again in the show's sixth season, and again in the show's eighth season premiere. In 2014, Elwes played Hugh Ashmeade, Director of the CIA, in the second season of the BYUtv series Granite Flats. In 2011, he was selected by Ivan Reitman to star alongside Natalie Portman in No Strings Attached. That same year, Elwes and Garry Marshall teamed up again in the ensemble romantic comedy New Year's Eve opposite Robert de Niro and Halle Berry.

In 2012, Elwes starred in the independent drama The Citizen. and the following year Elwes joined Selena Gomez for the comedy ensemble, Behaving Badly directed by Tim Garrick. In 2015, he completed Sugar Mountain directed by Richard Gray; the drama We Don't Belong Here, opposite Anton Yelchin and Catherine Keener directed by Peer Pedersen, and Being Charlie which reunited Elwes with director Rob Reiner after 28 years and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2016, Elwes starred opposite Penelope Cruz in Fernando Trueba's Spanish-language period pic The Queen of Spain, a sequel to Trueba's 1998 drama The Girl of Your Dreams. This also re-united Elwes with his Princess Bride co-star, Mandy Patinkin.

Elwes at the Phoenix Comicon in 2014

In October 2014 Touchstone (Simon & Schuster) published Elwes's memoir of the making of The Princess Bride, entitled As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, which he co-wrote with Joe Layden. The book featured never-before-told stories, exclusive behind-the-scenes photographs, and interviews with co-stars Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, Fred Savage and Mandy Patinkin, as well as screenwriter William Goldman, producer Norman Lear, and director Rob Reiner. The book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list.

In 2014, Elwes co-wrote the screenplay for a film entitled Elvis & Nixon, about the pair's famous meeting at the White House in 1970. The film starred Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey; it was bought by Amazon as their first theatrical feature and released on 22 April 2016. In May 2015, Elwes was cast as Arthur Davenport, a shrewd and eccentric world-class collector of illegal art and antiquities in Crackle's first streaming network series drama, The Art of More, which explored the cutthroat world of premium auction houses. The series debuted on 19 November and was picked up for a second season.

In April 2018 Elwes portrayed Larry Kline, mayor of Hawkins, for the third season of the Netflix series Stranger Things, which premiered in July 2019. He was nominated along with the cast for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. In May 2019, he joined the third season of the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as Gavin Hawk.

Personal life

Elwes met photographer Lisa Marie Kurbikoff in 1991 at a chili cook-off in Malibu, California; they were engaged in 1997. They married in 2000 and have one daughter. Elwes and his family lost their home in the Palisades Fire during the January 2025 Southern California wildfires, but evacuated safely.

In March 2021, Elwes posted on his social media accounts that his younger half-sister Milica had died after battling Stage 4 cancer for more than a year.

Elwes is known for his feud with Republican Texas Senator and Princess Bride fan Ted Cruz. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Elwes initiated the 2020 fundraiser that re-united many Princess Bride cast members to support Joe Biden in the battleground state of Wisconsin. The Princess Bride Reunion raised more than $4 million for Wisconsin Democrats.

Saw lawsuit

In August 2005, Elwes filed a lawsuit against Evolution Entertainment, his management firm and producer of Saw. Elwes said he was promised a minimum of 1% of the producers' net profits and did not receive the full amount. The case was settled out of court. Elwes returned to the series in 2010 reprising his role in Saw 3D.

Filmography

Key

Denotes projects that have not yet been released

Film

List of film and roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Reference(s)
1979	Yesterday's Hero	Disco Dancer
1984	Another Country	James Harcourt
	Oxford Blues	Lionel
1985	The Bride	Capt. Josef Schoden
1986	Lady Jane	Guilford Dudley
1987	Maschenka	Lev Glebovich Ganin
	The Princess Bride	Westley / Dread Pirate Roberts / The Man in Black
1989	Never on Tuesday	Tow Truck Driver	Uncredited
	Glory	Maj. Cabot Forbes
1990	Days of Thunder	Russ Wheeler
1991	Hot Shots!	Lt. Kent Gregory
1992	Bram Stoker's Dracula	Lord Arthur Holmwood
	Leather Jackets	Dobbs	Also associate producer
1993	Robin Hood: Men in Tights	Robin Hood
	The Crush	Nick Eliot
1994	The Jungle Book	Capt. William Boone
	The Chase	Steve Horsegroovy
1996	Twister	Dr. Jonas Miller
1997	Kiss the Girls	Det. Nick Ruskin
	The Informant	Lt. David Ferris
	Liar Liar	Jerry
1998	Quest for Camelot	Garrett	Voice
1998	The Pentagon Wars	Col. James G. Burton
1999	Cradle Will Rock	John Houseman
2000	Shadow of the Vampire	Fritz Arno "Fritzy" Wagner
2001	The Cat's Meow	Thomas H. Ince
2002	Wish You Were Dead	Mac "Macbeth" Wilson
	Comic Book Villains	Carter	Also co-producer
2003	Porco Rosso	Donald Curtis	Voice; English dub
2004	Saw	Dr. Lawrence Gordon
	Ella Enchanted	Sir Edgar
	The Riverman	Ted Bundy
	American Crime	Albert Bodine
2005	Edison Force	District Attorney Jack Reigert
	Neo Ned	Dr. Magnuson
	National Lampoon's Pucked	Norman
	The Cat Returns	Baron Humbert von Gikkingen	Voice; English dub
2006	Factory Girl	Sam Green	Uncredited
	Whisper of the Heart	Baron Humbert von Gikkingen	Voice; English dub
2007	Walk the Talk	Erik	Also executive producer
	Georgia Rule	Arnold
2008	Alphabet Killer, TheThe Alphabet Killer	Capt. Kenneth Shine
2009	A Christmas Carol	Portly Gentleman, Guest #2, Businessman #1	Voice and motion-capture
2010	Psych 9	Dr. Clement
	Flying Lessons	Steven Jennings
	As Good as Dead	Ethan Belfrage
	Little Murder	Barry Fitzgerald
	Saw 3D	Dr. Lawrence Gordon
2011	No Strings Attached	Dr. Steven Metzner
	Delhi Safari	Bee Commander / Sultan	Voice
	The Adventures of Tintin	Seaplane Pilot	Voice and motion-capture
	New Year's Eve	Stan's Doctor
	The Story of Luke	Uncle Paul
	Camilla Dickinson	Rafferty Dickinson
	Hellgate	Jeff Mathews
2012	The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure	Bobby Wobbly
	The Citizen	Earl Miller
2013	Hansel & Gretel Get Baked	Meter Man
	Behaving Badly	Joseph Stevens
	Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox	Aquaman	Voice
	Armed Response	Joshua
2014	A Bit of Bad Luck	Brooks
	Reach Me	Kersey
2015	A Mouse Tale	Sir Thaddeus	Voice
	H8RZ	Principal Donato
	Being Charlie	David Mills
	A Haunting in Cawdor	Lawrence O'Neil
2016	Lost & Found	John Broman
	Sugar Mountain	Jim Huxley
	Elvis & Nixon	N/A	Writer and producer
	Indiscretion	Jake
	The Elephant Kingdom	Rock	Voice
	Beyond Beyond	Jonah's Father	Voice
	The Queen of Spain	Gary Jones
2017	We Don't Belong Here	Frank Harper
	Don't Sleep	Dr. Richard Sommers
2018	Billionaire Boys Club	Andy Warhol
	Ghost Light	Alex Pankhurst
2019	Black Christmas	Professor Gelson
2021	Best Sellers	Halpren Nolan
	The Unholy	Bishop Gyles
	Last Train to Christmas	Roger Towers
	A Castle for Christmas	Myles, the Duke of Dunbar
	Burning at Both Ends	Jacques Christoffersen	Entitled Resistance: 1942 in some territories
2022	The Hyperions	Professor Ruckus Mandulbaum
2023	Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre	Nathan Jasmine
	BlackBerry	Carl Yankowski
	Sweetwater	Ned Irish
	Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One	Denlinger
	Rebel Moon	The King
2024	Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver
	The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare	Brigadier Colin Gubbins
2025	The Panic	Charles Barney	Post-production
TBA	Dead Man's Wire	TBA	Filming

Television

Video games

Awards and honors

See also

In Spanish: Cary Elwes para niños