Ivan Simon Cary Elwes (born October 26, 1962) is an English actor and writer best known for his roles in the Saw franchise and films such as The Princess Bride, Glory, Kiss the Girls, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Days of Thunder, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Hot Shots!, Twister, The Jungle Book, and Liar, Liar. He also had several roles in series such as The X-Files, Psych, and the Crackle series The Art of More.
He played Dr. Lawrence Gordon in Saw and Saw 3D.
Early Life[]
Cary Elwes was born on October 26, 1962, in Westminster, London, the youngest of three sons of portrait painter Dominic Elwes and interior designer and socialite Tessa Kennedy. He is the brother of artist Damian Elwes and film producer Cassian Elwes. His stepfather, Elliott Kastner, was an American film producer. His paternal grandfather was painter Simon Elwes, whose father was the diplomat and tenor Gervase Elwes. Elwes' other great-grandfathers include the diplomat Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell, and industrialist Ivan Rikard Ivanović. Elwes is of Croatian, Jewish, English, Irish, Serbian, and Scottish descent. His Croatian and Serbian roots come from his maternal grandmother, Daška McLean, whose second husband, Billy McLean, was an operative for Special Operations Executive during World War II.
According to some sources, one of Elwes' ancestors, John Elwes, allegedly inspired Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. Elwes himself played five roles in the 2009 film adaptation of the novel. 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 Roman Catholic and was an altar boy at Westminster Cathedral. However, he did not attend denominational schools as most of the men in his father's family had. His paternal relatives include Dudley Charles Cary-Elwes, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Northampton, Abbott Columba Cary-Elwes, and Father Luke Cary-Elwes. He discussed this in an interview while filming the 2005 CBS television film Pope John Paul II, where he played the young priest Karol Wojtyła.
Elwes' parents divorced when he was four years old, and in 1975, when Elwes was 13, his father committed suicide. For his education, Elwes attended Harrow School. He then attended 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 the Actors Studio and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute under Al Pacino's mentor, Charlie Laughton. As a teenager, he also worked as a production assistant on Absolution, Octopussy, and Superman, where he was assigned to Marlon Brando. When Elwes introduced himself to the famous actor, Brando insisted on calling him "Rocky" after Rocky Marciano.
Elwes met photographer Lisa Marie Kurbikoff in 1991 at a chili cook-off in Malibu, California, and they became engaged in 1997. They married in 2000 and have one daughter together.
Career[]
Elwes made his acting debut in 1979 with a small role in Yesterday's Hero. In 1984, he acted in Marek Kanievska's film Another Country, loosely based on the English boarding school exploits of British spies Burgess, Philby, and MacLean, in which he played James Harcourt, a gay student. Elwes went on to play Guilford Dudley in the British historical drama film Lady Jane opposite Helena Bonham Carter. He was then cast as Westley in Rob Reiner's fantasy-comedy The Princess Bride, based on William Goldman's eponymous novel. It was a modest box office success but received critical acclaim, earning a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the film has become a cult classic since being released on home video and television.
Elwes continued working steadily, varying between dramatic and comedic roles. In 1993, he starred as Robin Hood in Mel Brooks' comedy Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Elwes also appeared in such films as Francis Coppola's adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Crush, The Jungle Book, Twister, Liar Liar, 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' musical, Cradle Will Rock. Months later, Elwes traveled 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 Miniseries 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 Outer Limits.
In 2001, he co-starred in Peter Bogdanovich's ensemble film The Cat's Meow, portraying movie mogul Thomas Ince, who died 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 movie Uprising opposite Jon Voight, directed by Jon Avnet. In addition, Elwes had a recurring role in the final season of Chris Carter's hit series The X-Files from 2001 to 2002 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.
In 2004, Elwes starred as Dr. Lawrence Gordon, one of the primary protagonists 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. Also in 2004, he portrayed serial killer Ted Bundy in the A&E Network film The Riverman, which became one of the highest-rated original movies in the network's history and garnered a prestigious BANFF Rockie Award nomination.
The following year, Elwes played the young Pope John Paul II in the CBS television film Pope John Paul II, his second time working with Jon Voight. The TV film was highly successful in North America and 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. In August 2005, Elwes filed a lawsuit against Evolution Entertainment, his management firm and producer of Saw. Elwes said he was promised at least one percent of the film's net profits and did not receive the total amount. The case was settled out of court.
He portrayed Sam Green, 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. The same year, Elwes made a guest appearance as a Mafia lawyer on the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Dependent." In 2009, he played Pierre Despereaux, an international art thief, in the fourth-season premiere of Psych.
Elwes' voice-over roles include the narrator in James Patterson's audiobook The Jester and characters in film and television animations such as Quest for Camelot, Pinky and The Brain, and Batman Beyond. Other credits include characters in the English versions of the Studio Ghibli films Porco Rosso, Whisper of the Heart, and The Cat Returns. In addition, he served as screenwriter, improviser, and voice actor of the main character for The Bard's Tale in 2004. In 2009, Elwes reunited with Jason Alexander for the Indian film Delhi Safari and portrayed Gremlin Gus in Disney's Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two in 2010. He also appeared in Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey as the voice of scientists Edmond Halley and Robert Hooke in 2014.
In 2010, he returned to the Saw franchise in Saw 3D, the seventh film in the series, to reprise his role as Dr. Lawrence Gordon. In 2011, he was selected by Ivan Reitman to star alongside Natalie Portman in No Strings Attached. Elwes and Garry Marshall teamed up again in the romantic comedy New Year's Eve that same year. Also in 2010, he returned to Psych, reprising his role in the second half of the fifth season, the sixth season, and again in the show's eighth season premiere. In 2012, Elwes starred in the independent drama The Citizen, and the following year, he joined Selena Gomez for the comedy ensemble Behaving Badly, directed by Tim Garrick.
In October 2014, Touchstone published As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, Elwes's memoir of the making of The Princess Bride, which he co-wrote with Joe Layden. The book featured 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.
The same year, Elwes co-wrote the screenplay for Elvis & Nixon, revolving around the pair's famous meeting at the White House in 1970. The film, which starred Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey, was bought by Amazon as their first theatrical feature and was released on April 22, 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 drama, The Art of More, which explored the cutthroat world of premium auction houses. The series debuted on November 19 and was picked up for a second season. Also in 2015, he completed four movies: Sugar Mountain, H8RZ, We Don't Belong Here, and Being Charlie, which reunited Elwes with director Rob Reiner after 28 years and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
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 alongside 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.
Filmography[]
Films[]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Yesterday's Hero | Disco Dancer |
| 1984 | Another Country | James Harcourt |
| Oxford Blues | Lionel | |
| 1985 | The Bride | Josef |
| 1986 | Lady Jane | Guilford Dudley |
| 1987 | Maschenka | Ganin |
| The Princess Bride | Westley | |
| 1988 | Never on Tuesday | Tow Truck Driver |
| 1989 | Glory | Maj. Cabot Forbes |
| 1990 | Days of Thunder | Russ Wheeler |
| 1991 | Hot Shots! | Lt. Kent Gregory |
| Leather Jackets | Dobbs | |
| 1992 | Kurenai no buta | Curtis |
| Bram Stoker's Dracula | Lord Arthur Holmwood | |
| 1993 | The Crush | Nick Eliot |
| Robin Hood: Men in Tights | Robin Hood | |
| 1994 | The Chase | Steve Horsegroovy |
| Felidae | Francis | |
| The Jungle Book | Boone | |
| 1995 | Mimi wo sumaseba | The Baron |
| 1996 | Twister | Dr. Jonas Miller |
| 1997 | Liar Liar | Jerry |
| The Informant | Lt. David Ferris | |
| Kiss the Girls | Det. Nick Ruskin | |
| 1998 | Quest for Camelot | Garrett |
| 1999 | Cradle Will Rock | John Houseman |
| 2000 | Shadow of the Vampire | Fritz Arno Wagner |
| 2001 | The Cat's Meow | Thomas Ince |
| Wish You Were Dead | Mac 'Macbeth' Wilson | |
| 2002 | Neko no ongaeshi | The Baron |
| Comic Book Villains | Carter | |
| 2004 | Saw | Dr. Lawrence Gordon |
| American Crime | Albert Bodine | |
| Ella Enchanted | Edgar | |
| 2005 | Neo Ned | Dr. Magnuson |
| Edison | Reigert | |
| 2006 | Pucked | Norman |
| The Dread Pirate Roberts: Greatest Legend of the Seven Seas | Professor E. L. Rawscey | |
| Factory Girl | Sam Green | |
| 2007 | Georgia Rule | Arnold |
| Walk the Talk | Erik | |
| 2008 | The Alphabet Killer | Kenneth Shine |
| 2009 | Na pude aneb Kdo má dneska narozeniny? | Sir Handsome |
| Elephant Kingdom | Rock | |
| A Christmas Carol | Portly Gentleman #1 / Dick Wilkins / Mad Fiddler / Guest #2 / Business Man #1 | |
| 2010 | As Good as Dead | Ethan Belfrage |
| Flying Lessons | Steven Jennings | |
| Psych:9 | Dr. Irvin Clement | |
| Saw 3D | Dr. Lawrence Gordon | |
| Behind the Carol: The Full Motion-Capture Experience | Portly Gentleman #1 / Dick Wilkins / Mad Fiddler / Guest #2 / Business Man #1 | |
| 2011 | Little Murder | Barry Fitzgerald |
| No Strings Attached | Dr. Metzner | |
| Hellgate | Jeff Mathews | |
| The Adventures of Tintin | Pilot | |
| New Year's Eve | Stan's Doctor | |
| 2012 | Camilla Dickinson | Rafferty Dickinson |
| Delhi Safari | Sultan / Bee Commander | |
| The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure | Bobby Wobbly | |
| Rodencia y el Diente de la Princesa | Sir Thaddeus | |
| The Story of Luke | Uncle Paul | |
| The Citizen | Miller | |
| 2013 | Hansel & Gretel Get Baked | Meter Man |
| In Security | Joshua | |
| She Loves Me Not | Brady Olinson | |
| Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox | Aquaman | |
| 2014 | Resan till Fjäderkungens Rike | Jonah's Father |
| A Bit of Bad Luck | Brooks | |
| Behaving Badly | Joseph Stevens | |
| Teen Lust | Sheldon | |
| Reach Me | Kersey | |
| 2015 | H8RZ | Principal Donato |
| Being Charlie | David Mills | |
| A Haunting in Cawdor | Lawrence O'Neil | |
| 2016 | Lost & Found | John Broman |
| Indiscretion | Jake Simon | |
| La reina de España | Gary Jones | |
| Sugar Mountain | Jim Huxley | |
| 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 | Circus Sam | Mr. McAdam |
| Black Christmas | Professor Gelson | |
| 2021 | Best Sellers | Halpern Nolan |
| The Unholy | Bishop Gyles | |
| Burning at Both Ends | Jacques | |
| A Castle for Christmas | Myles | |
| Last Train to Christmas | Roger Towers | |
| 2022 | The Hyperions | Professor Ruckus Mandulbaum |
| 2023 | Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre | Nathan |
| BlackBerry | Carl Yankowski | |
| Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One | Denlinger | |
| Sweetwater | Ned Irish | |
| Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire | The King |
Television Series[]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Seinfeld | David |
| 1998 | From the Earth to the Moon | Michael Collins |
| Pinky and the Brain | Director / Hamlet | |
| Hercules | Paris of Troy | |
| 1999 | The Outer Limits | Dr. John York |
| Batman Beyond | Paxton Powers | |
| 2001 | Night Visions | Gerald |
| 2001-2002 | The X Files | Brad Follmer |
| 2005 | Pope John Paul II | Young Karol Wojtyla |
| 2007 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Sidney Truex |
| 2012 | Leverage | Scott Roemer |
| Perception | British Intelligence Officer | |
| 2009-2014 | Psych | Pierre Despereaux |
| 2014 | Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey | Edmond Halley / Robert Hooke |
| Granite Flats | Hugh Ashmeade | |
| 2015-2016 | Sofia the First | Basil / Prince Roderick |
| The Art of More | Arthur Davenport | |
| 2017 | Workaholics | Fox |
| 2016-2017 | Life in Pieces | Professor Sinclair Wilde |
| 2018 | The Adventures of Puss in Boots | Guy Fox |
| Youth & Consequences | Joel Cutney | |
| 2019 | Stranger Things | Mayor Larry Kline |
| The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel | Gavin Hawk | |
| 2020 | Katy Keene | Leo Lacy |
| Home Movie: The Princess Bride | Prince Humperdinck | |
| 2014-2021 | Family Guy | Mr. Henderson / Chris Martin / Edison's Assistant / Cyrano de Bergerac / Charles Dickens / Nigel / Guard #1 / Watson |
Television Films[]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | The Pentagon Wars | Colonel James Burton |
| 2000 | Race Against Time | Burke |
| 2001 | Uprising | Dr. Fritz Hippler |
| 2004 | The Riverman | Ted Bundy |
| 2006 | Haskett's Chance | Mark Haskett / Chris Dalness |
| 2010 | Tough Trade | |
| 2011 | Wonder Woman | Henry Johns |
| 2012 | Prairie Dogs | Rams |
| 2013 | Anna Nicole | E. Pierce Marshall |
| Horizon | Max Hartman | |
| 2016 | Max | Ken |
Video Games[]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | The Bard's Tale | The Bard |
| 2007 | Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | Black Bart |
| 2012 | Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two | Gremlin Gus |
| 2017 | The Bard's Tale: Remastered and Resnarkled | The Bard |
Gallery[]
External Links[]
Cary Elwes on Wikipedia
Cary Elwes at the Internet Movie Database
Cary Elwes on Twitter
Cary Elwes on Instagram