Comes from a long-established recusant English family on his father's side. Several prominent Catholic clerics are among his relatives, including Fr. Luke Cary-Elwes, Dom Columba Cary-Elwes, and Dom Cuthbert Cary-Elwes. His paternal great-grandfather was Chamberlain to the Pope. Cary (the surname "Cary-Elwes" was shortened to "Elwes" in some branches of the family) was an altar boy at London's Brompton Oratory, although he did not attend a Catholic high school. His mother, Tessa Kennedy (now Kastner), is of Anglo-Irish and Serbo-Croatian extraction, on her paternal and maternal sides, respectively.


Became engaged in Paris to Lisa Marie Kurbikoff. [12 December 1997] Stepson of Elliott Kastner. Was chosen for the part of Westley in The Princess Bride (1987) after Rob Reiner saw him in Lady Jane (1986). He spent weeks training in fencing with both his left hand and right hand while performing acrobatics. Made his film debut in Marek Kanievska's award-winning drama Another Country (1984). Based on that performance, Cary was chosen by renowned Director of The Royal Shakespeare Company, Trevor Nunn, to star opposite Helena Bonham Carter in the highly acclaimed historical epic Lady Jane (1986). Having been a dramatic actor, he had never done a comedy prior to his acclaimed performance in The Princess Bride (1987). As a student in Sarah Lawrence College in 1980, he studied acting, philosophy and history. He also studied German Expressionist Film in college. Despite his parents' wealth, Elwes supplemented his income by working his way through school. His very devout Catholic mother took him to meet Pope John Paul II in the Vatican when Cary was 22 years old. Cary portrayed the young pontiff in the docudrama Pope John Paul II (2005) (TV). Met his wife Lisa Marie in 1991 at a Malibu chili cook-off. Daughter, Dominique, was born on April 24, 2007. Cousin of Amanda Elwes. Prepares intensely for most of his acting roles. (For example, for Days of Thunder (1990), he had to rely on practical research to meet the physical demands of playing a race car driver. For his role as Air Force Colonel James Burton in The Pentagon Wars (1998) (TV), he spent a few days in Burton's home interviewing him and poring over his BFV files, and even filing boxes of Burton's Bradley documents and giving every page back to Burton.). Nicknamed "The Next Errol Flynn" by Mel Brooks. Brooks said, "He can do comedy and drama". Father was Dominick Elwes (1931-1975), a portrait painter and Mayfair figure. Parents divorced when Cary was young (age 8). A sufferer of manic depression, his father was not a strong commercial success and was later ostracized by a close circle of friends because of his link to the notorious Lord Lucan. He committed suicide at age 44. Is the ambassador for the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund with UNICEF. As ambassador, he traveled to Banda Aceh, Indonesia for the documentary "The Children of the Tsunami", which was filmed 90 days after the tsunami of December 2003 to document the damage and recovery efforts.