Cary Elwes Bio

This Cary Elwes biography contains information believed to be accurate as extracted from sources around the internet including Wikipedia. If you believe there are errors or omissions in this Cary Elwes bio, please let us know so that we can correct any inaccuracies.

Cary Elwes (born October 26, 1962) is a British actor, known for his performances in The Princess Bride; Robin Hood: Men in Tights; Hot Shots!; Glory; Liar, Liar; Saw; and Twister.

Cary Elwes: Biography

Cary Elwes - Early life

Elwes (pronounced El-wez) was born Ivan Simon Cary Elwes in Westminster, London. He is the third and youngest son of English portrait-painter Dominick Elwes and , interior designer Tessa Georgina Kennedy, who is of Croatian and Anglo-Irish descent. The two eloped to great scandal in 1958. He has two brothers, film agent Cassian Elwes, and artist Damian Elwes. His grandfather, Simon Elwes, was a very well-known British portrait painter.

He attended Harrow School in London and Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where he studied, among other acting-related subjects, German Expressionist Film.

Cary Elwes - Career

Elwes made his acting debut in Mariek Kanievska's famous film Another Country (where he played James Harcourt, a young and sentimental homosexual student from an Eton-esque traditional English boarding school), with Rupert Everett and Colin Firth. The film, adapted from a play, was loosely based on the formative years of British spies Guy Burgess, Kim Philby and Donald Maclean. His first notable role was Guilford Dudley in the highly acclaimed British epic Lady Jane after being personally chosen by distinguished Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Trevor Nunn.

His performance in Lady Jane led director Rob Reiner to cast him in another leading role, this time as the stable boy turned hero Westley in the American comedy The Princess Bride, which required Elwes to do all of his own swordfighting and acrobatics. Elwes' breakthrough performance in The Princess Bride gained international acclaim and was his first major attempt at comedy. Prior to this film, he had no comedic experience, having only studied and worked in drama.

He continued working steadily, varying between dramatic roles, as in the Academy Award-winning Glory, and comedic roles, as in Hot Shots!. He starred as Robin Hood in Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights, parodying Errol Flynn and Kevin Costner in The Adventures of Robin Hood and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, respectively. ("Unlike other Robin Hoods," he quips in the film, taking aim directly at Costner and Flynn, "I can speak with an English accent!"). Elwes continued to appear in such popular movies as Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Crush, The Jungle Book, Twister, Liar Liar, Cradle Will Rock, The Cat's Meow and Kiss the Girls. He did not appear in another blockbuster until 2004 in the horror/thriller Saw. The same year he appeared in the film Ella Enchanted, portraying the villain rather than the hero. In 2007, he made another "bad guy" appearance in Georgia Rule.

Elwes has also appeared on television. In 1996, he played a bit part as "David Libner" on the hit show Seinfeld, opposite Debra Messing. In 1998, he played Astronaut Michael Collins in the Golden Globe Award-winning HBO miniseries From the Earth To the Moon. In 1999, he guest starred as Dr. John York in the Ripper episode of the television series The Outer Limits. He earned two Golden Satellite Award nominations for his performances in the television films The Pentagon Wars and Uprising. He had a recurring role in the final season (2001-2002) of The X-Files as FBI Assistant Director Brad Follmer. Chris Carter, creator of the X-Files, wrote the character especially for him.

In 2004, he received great praise with his portrayal of serial killer Ted Bundy in the A&E Network film The Riverman, which was based on the book The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer written by Robert D. Keppel. The Riverman became one of the highest rated original movies in the network's history and garnered a prestigious BANFF Rockie Award nomination. In 2005 he again received critical acclaim, internationally, with his portrayal of the young, pre-Pope John Paul II in the CBS made-for-TV movie epic Pope John Paul II. This epic 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 (GBP588,200) in three days.

His voice-over works include the narrator in James Patterson's audio book The Jester as well as characters in film and television animations such as Quest for Camelot, Hercules, Batman Beyond, and the English versions of the Japanese films Porco Rosso, Whisper of the Heart, and The Cat Returns. For the 2004 video game The Bard's Tale, he served as scriptwriter, improviser, and voice actor of the main character The Bard.

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 made a guest appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He has also performed in the Bob Balaban-directed off-Broadway dramatic stage play The Exonerated in New York during the March 18-23, 2003 week run.

In August 2005, he filed a lawsuit against his management firm and the producers of Saw. He alleged that he was promised a percentage of the profits and did not receive the full amount as promised.

More recently Elwes appeared in two motion capture 3-D films: Robert Zemeckis' adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.

Cary Elwes - Personal life

Elwes and Lisa Marie Kurbikoff met in 1991. The couple became engaged in 1997 in Paris and wed in 2000. The couple have one daughter. Elwes has been active in fighting for the rights of Native Americans and for the end of the genocide in Darfur.