NEED TO KNOW
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Cary Elwes paid tribute to Norman Lear on what would have been his 103rd birthday and thanked him for changing his life “forever” with The Princess Bride
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Lear, best known for his work on TV, was also a movie producer and produced The Princess Bride
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The movie was directed by Rob Reiner, who had starred on Lear’s sitcom All in the Family
Cary Elwes is remembering someone who had a big impact on his career.
On July 27, Elwes, 62, took to Instagram to honor the late Norman Lear on his birthday.
“The magnificent @thenormanlear would have been 103 today,” Elwes wrote alongside a photo of him and Lear. “This remarkable man helped change my life forever by personally financing [The Princess Bride] with a boy he had never heard of to play Westley. Please join me in sharing your love for him ⚔️❤️”
Lear died in 2023 at age 101. He was best known for his prolific work as a TV producer, with shows like All in the Family, Maude, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons and Good Times, which blended sitcom situations with social issues and political commentary. But he also produced movies, including 1987’s The Princess Bride.
The beloved film, which blends fantasy, comedy and romance, was directed by Rob Reiner, who had starred in All in the Family as Mike “Meathead” Stivic. Lear also financed Reiner’s first three films: 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap, 1985’s The Sure Thing and 1986’s Stand by Me.
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Robin Wright (left) and Cary Elwes in ‘The Princess Bride’
Lear told The New York Times in 1987 that he had doubts Reiner could combine the heart, humor and action of The Princess Bride, which was based on the William Goldman novel of the same name, into one movie. “We had a conversation about the project, and I said, ‘Tell me, what is the lifeline of this picture?’ And he said, ‘The love story,’ ” Lear remembered. “And I said, ‘How can you sustain the love story with all that tomfoolery?’ And he said, ‘Difficult.’ And I said, ‘How can you sustain the love story with the lead kidding it all the time?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, ‘It isn’t even happening — it’s a grandfather reading it to a kid — Rob, that’s impossible.’ And he said, ‘Yup.’ ”
He continued, “And that’s when I knew I wanted to do it with him — he wasn’t kidding himself, he knew it was a real reach. But that’s what this business is all about, you’ve got to keep reaching.”
Elwes played Westley (a.k.a. the Dread Pirate Roberts) in the movie alongside Robin Wright as Princess Buttercup. At the time, Wright was starring in the soap Santa Barbara, and Elwes only had a handful of roles under his belt. The movie’s cast also included Mandy Patinkin, André the Giant, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, Peter Falk, Fred Savage, Carol Kane and Reiner’s good friend Billy Crystal. The movie was a modest box office success but received rave reviews. Thanks to home video and passionate fans, the film is now widely regarded as a classic.
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Rob Reiner (left) and Norman Lear in 2011
“Once I got that part, that really kind of opened the door for me and that’s how I got the role of Robin Hood with Mel Brooks,” Elwes told PEOPLE in 2024 of the impact of the film on his career, referring to his titular role in 1993’s Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
“So that was really Rob basically saying, ‘I believe that you can do comedy and I can believe you do serious as well.’ So, yeah,” he said. The success the movie brought him, he said, was “really inconceivable, to use a word that’s famous from the movie.”
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“You’re lucky as an actor to have anyone resonate with your work, and I seem to hit the jackpot with that one,” he said.
Read the original article on People
