Cary Elwes in Stranger Things: Mayor Kline, from The Princess Bride to Hawkins

Who is Cary Elwes

Cary Elwes was born on October 26, 1962, in Westminster, London. His full name is Ivan Simon Cary Elwes. He is the youngest of the three sons of portrait painter Dominick Elwes and interior designer Tessa Kennedy. His two brothers are Damian, a painter, and Cassian, a film producer. His paternal grandfather, Simon Elwes, was already a portrait painter.

His parents divorced when he was four. His stepfather, Elliott Kastner, was an American film producer. His father died in 1975, when the boy was thirteen. He studied at Harrow School and at LAMDA, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

As a teenager, he worked as a production assistant on film sets, including Superman. He was put in charge of Marlon Brando, who called him “Rocky,” after the boxer Rocky Marciano. In 1981, he moved to the United States to study acting, at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, near New York. In 2000, he married photographer Lisa Marie Kurbikoff; they have a daughter.

1. 1962 Westminster

   Born on October 26, in London.

2. 1981 New York

   He leaves to study acting at Sarah Lawrence College, in Bronxville.

3. 1984 Another Country

   James Harcourt, a pupil at an English boarding school, in Marek Kanievska's film.

4. 1987 The Princess Bride

   Westley, directed by Rob Reiner. The film becomes a cult classic thanks to home video and TV.

5. 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula

   Lord Arthur Holmwood, in Francis Ford Coppola's film.

6. 2004 Saw

   Dr. Lawrence Gordon, in James Wan's horror film.

7. April 2018 Mayor Kline

   His casting is announced. Filming on Season 3 begins on April 23.

8. July 4, 2019 The release

   All eight episodes of Season 3 come out on the same day.

The Princess Bride and the 80s and 90s

On the big screen, he played James Harcourt, a boarding-school pupil, in Another Country, a 1984 film by Marek Kanievska. In 1985, the year of Season 3, came The Bride, by Franc Roddam, in which he had a supporting role, Josef. The show draws on the movies of those years: our guide to the show's 80s references lists them.

Then came Westley. The Princess Bride was released in the United States on September 25, 1987. Rob Reiner directed, and William Goldman adapted his own 1973 novel. Westley is a stable boy who comes back as a pirate to win Buttercup back from Prince Humperdinck. According to an interview published in 2001 by the Houston Chronicle, the studio did not know how to sell this mix of adventure, fairy tale and comedy, so it marketed it as a children's film. Box office was modest, critics were enthusiastic, and home video and television made it a cult classic.

In October 2014, he told the story of the shoot in a book written with Joe Layden, As You Wish, named after Westley's reply to Buttercup. The book made The New York Times best-seller list.

The following years alternated drama and comedy: Glory in 1989, Days of Thunder in 1990, opposite Tom Cruise, Hot Shots! in 1991. In 1992, Francis Ford Coppola cast him as Lord Arthur Holmwood in Bram Stoker's Dracula. In 1993, he played the title role in a Mel Brooks comedy.

Saw, The X-Files and the roles that followed

Television came in 1996, with Seinfeld. From 2001 to 2002, he played Brad Follmer, an FBI assistant director, in the ninth season of The X-Files.

In 2004 came Saw. James Wan made this horror film on a budget of just over one million dollars; it grossed more than one hundred million worldwide. Elwes played Dr. Lawrence Gordon. In 2005, he sued the company that managed him and produced the film, saying he had not received the full percentage of the profits he was promised. The case was settled out of court. In 2010, he returned to the role in Saw 3D, the seventh film in the franchise.

From 2009 to 2014, he came back to Psych several times as an international art thief. In 2009, he played five roles in Robert Zemeckis's A Christmas Carol. A family connection: one of his relatives, the miser John Elwes, is said to have inspired Ebenezer Scrooge. In 2016 came Elvis & Nixon, which he co-wrote.

Mayor Kline, an 80s politician

After Season 2, casting director Carmen Cuba called him in to meet the Duffers, The Ringer reported in July 2019. His casting was announced in April 2018, at the same time as Jake Busey's. The announcement described Kline as a “classic '80s politician – more concerned with his own image than with the people of the small town he governs.” Filming began on April 23, 2018: Cary Elwes was 55. He joined the recurring cast, not the main one. The Season 3 cast introduces the other newcomers of the summer of 1985.

In the story, Kline began leasing town land to Starcourt Industries in 1984. He also raised property taxes, which helped Starcourt Mall crush the downtown stores.

The character recalls a movie mayor. The show's fan wiki presents him as a parody of Larry Vaughn, the mayor in Jaws, released in 1975; in July 2019, a writer at The Ringer made the same connection. Both men are named Larry. In Amity, the mayor wants to keep the beaches open a few days before July 4, while the police chief wants to close them. The full portrait of the 1985 mayor is in our article on Mayor Kline.

In the French dub, Kline is voiced by Éric Aubrahn. Yet the actor's usual French voice is Éric Herson-Macarel; Éric Aubrahn has dubbed him eight times. Our feature on the French voices introduces the show's other voice actors.

Kline vs. Hopper, all the way to the July 4 celebration

Kline appears in five episodes. He makes his entrance in the second, “The Mall Rats,” on June 30, 1985, in the story. A crowd is protesting outside town hall against Starcourt, accused of ruining local businesses. While Jim Hopper waits, a man in biker gear walks out of the mayor's office. Kline demands that the police chief break up the protesters, who have no permit. Hopper brings up his reelection; Kline is staking everything on his July 4 celebration, because, in his words, “that's all the voters will remember.”

Hopper comes back on July 2, in episode 4, “The Sauna Test,” with Joyce. He remembers the biker from town hall and is looking for the man who attacked him. Kline claims the man was there for maintenance, then reminds the chief of the pills he used to take. Hopper hits him and threatens to cut off one of his fingers. The mayor caves: he works with this man, who is employed by Starcourt's owners. At his house, he takes the land deeds out of his safe, then tries to escape through the window. Hopper handcuffs him to his bed.

In episode 6, “E Pluribus Unum,” the fair is being set up. Grigori, the biker from town hall, tracks down the mayor, blames him for not taking care of the Hopper problem and roughs him up: if he doesn't find Hopper, he will be killed the next day. On July 4, in episode 7, “The Bite,” Kline gives his opening speech. Then he spots Hopper and Joyce in the crowd and immediately calls the Russians.

What follows plays out at the fair: Alexei dies there. On the way out, Joyce punches the mayor in the face. Kline, however, does not die. After Starcourt is destroyed, the end of the last episode, “The Battle of Starcourt,” shows his arrest. A TV news report describes a “disgraced, corrupt” mayor. The Season 3 recap covers the rest of that ending.

After Hawkins: a nomination, other roles, a return without him

On December 11, 2019, the Season 3 cast was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, in the category for ensemble in a drama series. Twenty-one names appear on the nomination, Cary Elwes's among them. On January 19, 2020, the award went to The Crown.

In May 2019, before the season was even out, it was announced that he was joining The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as Gavin Hawk. Guy Ritchie directed him twice, in 2023 and in 2024. In 2023, he played Denlinger in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, a role he reprised in 2025 in The Final Reckoning. In 2024, he was “Pistol” Pete Whipple in the series Knuckles.

Cary Elwes himself does not return. In live action, the mayor appears only in Season 3, from “The Mall Rats” to “The Battle of Starcourt.” The show's cast, season by season, lists him among the departures of 1985. Westley, “mostly dead,” came back to life thanks to an old miracle man. Kline, on the other hand, leaves the stage alive, under arrest.

Yet the character returns, without his actor. On April 23, 2026, the animated series Tales From 1985 came out, set in the winter of 1985, between Seasons 2 and 3. In the second episode, on January 10, 1985, in the story, Kline announces the Winter Festival pie-eating contest. In the original English version, Matt Kaminsky voices him.

Frequently asked questions

Read next