Elwes was born on 26 October in Westminster, London. He is the youngest of three sons of portrait painter Dominick Elwes [ 10 ] and Tessa Kennedy , an interior designer and socialite. Cary's stepfather, Elliott Kastner , was an American film producer and the first American to set up independent film production in the United Kingdom. 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. Elwes's parents divorced when he was four years old. In , when Elwes was 13, his father died by suicide. When Elwes introduced himself to the actor, Brando insisted on calling him "Rocky" after Rocky Marciano.
Elwes made his acting debut in in Marek Kanievska 's film Another Country , which was loosely based on the English boarding school exploits of British spies Burgess , Philby and MacLean. He played James Harcourt, a gay student. He was cast as stable-boy-turned-swashbuckler Westley in Rob Reiner 's fantasy-comedy The Princess Bride , which was based on the novel of the same name by William Goldman.
It was a modest box office success, [ 22 ] but received critical acclaim. Initially the studio didn't know how to market it. Was it an adventure? A fantasy? A comedy? A romance? A kids' movie? In the end they sold it as a kids' movie and it largely had to rely on word of mouth Elwes continued to work steadily, varying between dramatic roles, such as in the Oscar -winning Glory and comedic roles, as in Hot Shots!
He played a rival driver to Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder Elwes made his first television appearance in as David Lookner on Seinfeld. In , he guest starred as Dr. John York in an episode of the television series The Outer Limits. In , he co-starred in Peter Bogdanovich 's ensemble film The Cat's Meow portraying film mogul Thomas Ince , who died mysteriously while vacationing with William Randolph Hearst on his yacht.
