Cary Elwes

Cary Elwes made his cinematic debut inMarek Kanievska’s coming-of-age drama “Another Country” based on the award-winning play by Julian Mitchell. He soon started a pattern of appearing in historical dramas and other period pieces, first with “Lady Jane” opposite Helena Bonham-Carter and then as the lead role in “Maschenka”, based on the novel by Vladimir Nabokov. However, he made his international breakthrough with Rob Reiner‘s classic adventure fairy tale “The Princess Bride”. Continuing with historical films, Elwes co-starred in Academy Award winning Civil War drama “Glory”, directed by Ed Zwick. Soon after, Elwes joined directorTony Scott to work on his action filled blockbuster “Days of Thunder”. Then he made a successful jump to broad comedy with lead roles in Jim Abrahams’ “Hot Shots!” and as the lead in Mel Brooks’ “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”.Switching to darker themes, Elwes portrayed Lord Arthur Holmwood in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” and the object of Alicia Silverstone’s obsession in “The Crush”. That same year, he briefly returned to adventure for Stephen Sommers’ adaptation of “Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book” before moving on to the highly acclaimed thrillers, “Twister” and “Kiss the Girls” for which he was nominated for a Blockbuster Entertainment Award. Elwes was then nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for his portrayal of Colonel James Burton in HBO’s “The Pentagon Wars” directed by Richard Benjamin.The following year he transformed his physique for the role of portly Broadway producer John Houseman (Orson Welles‘ colleague) in Tim Robbins‘ “Cradle Will Rock”. He continued portraying cinematic legends in his next few films, including German cinematographer Fritz Arno Wagner in “Shadow of the Vampire” and pioneering producer Thomas H. Ince in Peter Bogdanovich’s “The Cat’s Meow”. He then portrayed Nazi filmmaker, Fritz Hippler, in Jon Avnet’s TV movie “Uprising” and had a reoccurring role on “The X-Files” as FBI Assistant Brad Follmer. Soon after he returned to romantic comedy opposite Anne Hathaway in “Ella Enchanted”.Elwes next starred in James Wan’sinfamous horror/thriller “Saw” which had a budget of $1,000,000 and grossed over $100M and for which Elwes was nominated for an MTV Award. That same year he portrayed serial killer Ted Bundy in the A&E TV movie “The Riverman” and soon after portrayed Jane Fonda’s son-in-law in Garry Marshall’s drama, “Georgia Rule”. Elwes then became a series regular in the highly rated TV comedy “Psych” in the role of elegant art thief, Pierre Despereaux. He returned to his role of Dr. Gordon for “Saw: The Final Chapter” and the following year appeared in Ivan Reitman’s comedy “No Strings Attached”, Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin”, and as Robert de Niro’s doctor in Garry Marshall’s romantic comedy, “New Year’s Eve.” Elwes just completed another ensemble comedy, John Herzfeld’s “Reach Me”, and is starring in the USA pilot “Horizon” for producerGale Anne Hurd.
Read more…
E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of California Film Foundation to add comments!

Join California Film Foundation