Ivan Simon Cary Elwes (/ˈɛlwɪs/; born 26 October 1962) is an English actor and writer. He is known for his leading film roles as Westley in The Princess Bride (1987), Robin Hood in Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dr. Lawrence Gordon in the Saw film series. Elwes' other performances in films include Glory (1989), Hot Shots! (1991), The Jungle Book (1994), Days of Thunder (1990), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Twister (1996), Kiss the Girls (1997), Liar Liar (1997), Cradle Will Rock (1999), Shadow of the Vampire (2000), The Cat's Meow (2001), Ella Enchanted (2004), The Alphabet Killer (2008), A Christmas Carol (2009), No Strings Attached (2011), and The Hyperions (2022). He has appeared on television in a number of series including The X-Files, Seinfeld, From the Earth to the Moon, Psych, Life in Pieces, Stranger Things, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Early life
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. In 1975, when Elwes was 13, his father committed suicide. 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.
