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Ivan Simon Cary Elwes (born October 26, 1962) is an English actor credited as Cary Elwes, best known for his performances in The Princess Bride, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Saw. In 2004, he portrayed one of the most notorious serial killers of all time, Ted Bundy in the award-nominated telefilm The Riverman. In 2005, he played Pope John Paul II from his early years until his election as pope, in an internationally-acclaimed CBS film.

Background

Elwes (pronounced "El-Ways") attended Harrow School in England, and Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York, where he studied, among other acting-related subjects, German Expressionist Film.

Elwes descends from a devoutly Roman Catholic recusant family on his father's side (originally known as the "Cary-Elwes" family, but now many branches of the family are now simply known as "Elwes") which includes noted British monks and bishops, such as Abbott Columba Cary-Elwes, Archbishop Dudley Cary-Elwes and Father Luke Cary-Elwes. He himself was an altar boy at the Brompton Oratory.

His father Dominic Elwes and grandfather Simon Elwes were very well-known British portrait painters.

His artist father, Dominic Elwes, had moved in the circles of high society (and been friends with Lord Lucan and Lady Annabel Goldsmith to whom he was also related) before he committed suicide in 1975.

His mother, interior designer and shipping heiress Tessa Kennedy, also a Catholic, eloped with his father in 1957 at age 19 to great scandal. She is of Croatian and Anglo-Irish extraction. She has been married to Jewish-American Hollywood executive, Elliott Kastner

, for many years, and they have a daughter, Milica Kastner.

Elwes became engaged to Lisa Marie Kurbikoff in 1997 and they wed in 2001. Elwes has 2 brothers, Cassian and Damian, and a half-sister Milica, who are all involved in the entertainment industry.

He and his wife are reportedly expecting their first child together, due Spring 2007. [1]

Career

Elwes 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. After Elwes' success with this film, he turned down Trevor Nunn's offer to join the Royal Shakespeare Company in order to continue work in movies. 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.

Elwes would continue working steadily, varying between dramatic roles, as in the Academy Award-winning Glory, and comedic roles, as in Hot Shots!. He would star as the famous 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. Elwes would continue appearing in such popular movies as Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Crush, The Jungle Book, Twister, Liar Liar, Cradle Will Rock, and The Cat's Meow. While still acting, he would not appear in another blockbuster until 2005 in the horror/thriller Saw. The same year he appeared in the Princess Bride-esque film Ella Enchanted, portraying the villain rather than the hero.

Elwes has also appeared on television. 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 1998 and 2001 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. 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 A&E 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 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 minimum of one percent of the producers' net profits" and did not receive the full amount as promised.

Elwes has volunteered as an actor with the Young Storytellers Program.

Filmography

References

External links

• Elwes's wife:
• Interview with Cary Elwes for Saw at Dread Central

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