What Happened To The Cast Of The Princess Bride?

With a legacy spanning decases, it's still inconceivable that anyone could dislike "The Princess Bride." Released in 1987, the fantasy romantic comedy was written by William Goldman (already a two-time Academy Award-winner for his work on "All the President's Men" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"), directed by Rob Reiner (then best known for directing "Stand By Me" the year prior), and featured a miraculously stacked cast. Though it did just okay at the box office, the film has since become a cult classic that — in large part through the continued success of this cast — retroactively vindicates those who were early champions of its brilliance.

Whether senior actor or child star, veteran of the screen or relative newcomer, everyone with a role in the core ensemble of "The Princess Bride" brings something wildly unexpected to their individual role no matter how small. Incidentally, the vast majority of these actors have also gone on to enjoy starring roles in culturally prominent films and television shows. As we look back at what happened to the cast of "The Princess Bride," it's hard not to see them as one of the most successful film ensembles of all time.

The narrative form of "The Princess Bride" is a bedtime story being told by the quintessentially kindly but lively grandfather played by Peter Falk, whose voice is comforting, energetic, and instrumental in giving the film the endearing sense of levity that makes it so distinct in the fantasy genre.

By the time Falk was cast in "The Princess Bride," he was already incredibly famous for playing the title role in the hit TV crime drama "Columbo" from 1968 to 1978. In 1989, "Columbo" was revived by ABC in the form of a series of TV movies that functioned as the show's 8th, 9th, and 10th seasons. This revival took up the majority of Falk's time and talents (even winning him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series as recently as 1990) through its conclusion in 2003.

Between "Columbo" and "The Princess Bride," Falk's celebrity status was such that he was frequently asked to play fictional versions of himself in films and television shows, including in Robert Altman's 1992 Hollywood mystery satire "The Player," the 1993 German fantasy film "Faraway, So Close!," and an episode of HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show." He was also featured in the comedy bomb "Corky Romano," the Nicolas Cage action film "Next," and the 2009 indie comedy "American Cowslip." The latter film was Falk's final project before his death in 2011.

Fred Savage earned acclaim for his performance as the grandson in "The Princess Bride," winning the Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture in 1987. This led to him being cast as the leading role in the ABC sitcom "The Wonder Years," which ran for six seasons from 1988 to 1993. During this same period, he was also cast in several feature films, including the 1988 comedy "Vice Versa" (co-starring Judge Reinhold) and 1989's "The Wizard." In 1990, he hosted an episode of "Saturday Night Live."

In 1997, Savage nabbed another leading role on NBC's "Working," though the sitcom was short-lived. However, it offered him an opportunity to jumpstart his television directing career, subsequently honing his craft on children's TV projects like "Even Stevens," "Drake and Josh," and "That's So Raven." In 2007, he received a Directors Guild of America nomination for directing the pilot episode of Disney Channel's "Wizards of Waverly Place." He was soon after brought into the core directing and producing team of FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," playing a formative role in the series' growth. His directing opportunities continued to expand, stepping behind the camera for a dizzying number of shows including "Modern Family," "The Goldbergs," and "Black-ish." He also served as an executive producer on "Party Down." 

As he directed for various TV shows, Savage also guest-starred in plenty as well. His most prominent roles since "Working" were in the series "Generator Rex," "Friends from College," and the legal comedy "The Grinder." In 2018, he played a version of himself parodying his role in "The Princess Bride" for the PG-13 cut of "Deadpool 2" (re-titled "Once Upon a Deadpool"). In 2020, he reprised his role more directly for Jason Reitman's quarantine project "Home Movies: The Princess Bride."

Savage's career has long been marred by allegations of misconduct on the sets of the original "Wonder Years" show and "The Grinder" (the former case was handled out of court, while an investigation into the latter conducted by Fox found no wrongdoing on Savage's part). In 2022, he was fired as an executive producer of the reboot of "The Wonder Years," following an investigation. He has not directed since, and he has only guest-starred in episodes of "The Afterparty" and "Three Women."

Arguably the character most central to "The Princess Bride" is the princess herself, Buttercup, who was played by Robin Wright, then known for her soap opera work. But Wright's performance helped her transition from daytime television to projects like the 1994 Robert Zemeckis feature "Forrest Gump" (for which she earned acclaim and nominations for major awards, including a Golden Globe). In 2000, she notably replaced Julianne Moore in the M. Night Shyamalan superhero thriller "Unbreakable." She also reunited with Zemeckis for the motion-capture animated films "Beowulf" and "A Christmas Carol," and she was featured prominently in 2011's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

In 2013, the relatively nascent streaming service Netflix cast her as Claire Underwood in the political thriller series "House of Cards." Though its legacy overall is complicated at best due to the involvement of controversial star Kevin Spacey, it stands as one of Wright's most lauded projects to date, which she championed until its final bow in 2018. It also helped energize her career somewhat, landing her roles in blockbuster films like "Wonder Woman" and "Blade Runner 2049," and helped further her aspirations as a director. 

Wright served on the directing team of the Netflix series "Ozark" and made her feature directorial debut with 2021's "Land." More recently, she returned to Netflix and to her "Princess Bride" roots for the Millie Bobby Brown fantasy "Damsel." In 2024, she reunited with Zemeckis and her "Forrest Gump" co-star Tom Hanks for the drama "Here."

As the dashing and dangerous Westley, Cary Elwes gave his all to "The Princess Bride" (so much so that he had to make a visit to the hospital during filming). Though it was one of his first roles, it sparked an immediately bountiful career for Elwes in film and television. On the big screen, he appeared in classics such as the Academy Award-winning Civil War drama "Glory" and Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Bram Stoker's "Dracula." In 1993, he led the cast of the musical farce "Robin Hood: Men in Tights." He also guest-starred on a wide range of TV shows when able throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, including "Seinfeld" (as David Lukner) and "The X-Files" (Brad Follmer). 

Elwes next career-defining role came perhaps unexpectedly in 2004 via the low-budget, genre-altering horror film "Saw," directed by young visionary James Wan. The film cemented Elwes as one of the most versatile actors working in genre filmmaking.

As the years progressed, the variety of projects Elwes appeared in continued to expand. He reunited with co-star Robin Wright for "A Christmas Carol;" recurred as the goofy international superthief Pierre Despereaux on USA's "Psych;" played the cartoonishly evil mayor Larry Kline on "Stranger Things;" then took a more subtle comedic challenge as Gavin in "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." 

More recently, Elwes played supporting roles in the 2023 biopic "BlackBerry" and the franchise blockbuster "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning." The following year, he was featured in Zack Snyder's disastrous Netflix sci-fi epic "Rebel Moon" as well as the "Sonic the Hedgehog" spin-off series "Knuckles" for Paramount+.

The obstacle to Westley and Buttercup's epic love story was, of course, the villainous Prince Humperdinck, who sought to kill Westley and use Buttercup as a tragic pawn in his larger play for power. Humperdinck was played by the charmingly villainous Chris Sarandon, best known at the time for his roles in "Guiding Light," "Fright Night," and "Dog Day Afternoon."

On film, Sarandon was fortunate enough to follow "The Princess Bride" with a certified commercial hit:- the 1988 horror film "Child's Play," which spawned the long-running Chucky the Doll franchise for slashers. In 1993, he brought frights and delights to a much younger audience when he was cast as the speaking voice of the pumpkin king Jack Skellington in Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (this casting was apparently internally controversial, creating strife between Burton and composer-performer Danny Elfman). Sarandon has reprised this voice role a number of times for officially licensed Disney video games like the "Kingdom Hearts" and "Disney Infinity" series.

On television, Sarandon has largely guest-starred on various programs. Highlights include episodes of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves' coming-of-age drama "Felicity," "ER," "Law and Order," and "Psych." He has also appeared in several prominent theatrical productions on and off Broadway, including a star-studded revival of the classic "Cyrano de Bergerac," the musical "The Light in the Piazza," and Dave Malloy's "Preludes." Sarandon has not appeared on stage or screen since 2017.

By the time he portrayed the clergyman in "The Princess Bride," Peter Cook was 50 years old and relatively well known in the UK. He played the title role in the satire "The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer," took on Sherlock Holmes in 1978's "The Hound of the Baskervilles," and co-wrote and starred in "Bedazzled," one of the best satanic movies you've probably never seen. He was also revered in the British comedy scene.

Cook's post-"Princess Bride" resume is shorter, however, consisting of supporting and cameo roles mostly in British films. These included the Strangelovian "Whoops Apocalypse," the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic "Great Balls of Fire!" starring Dennis Quaid, "The Craig Ferguson Story," and, finally, the 1994 film "Black Beauty." Cook had lived with an addiction disorder throughout the latter decades of life and was an infamously heavy drinker. He died in 1995 at the age of 57 due to a gastrointestinal hemorrhage that many news outlets attributed to years of alcohol abuse, and the prevailing narrative was that the world had lost one of its most underrated comedic talents before he could truly showcase his genius.

To carry out his dastardly plot, Prince Humperdinck employed the services of the cunning Sicilian criminal Vizzini, played by iconic character actor Wallace Shawn. Shawn had already enjoyed a steady career up to that point in films ranging from the 1979 Bob Fosse classic "All That Jazz" to Woody Allen's "Radio Days," which was released the same year as "The Princess Bride." (Despite this success, the actor later admitted he felt like he was living in Danny DeVito's shadow during production.) He also co-wrote the 1981 drama "My Dinner with Andre."

Shawn continued to work frequently after "The Princess Bride," notably starring in the 1994 dramedy "Vanya on 42nd Street" and the cult-classic comedy "Clueless." He began collaborating with the animation studio Pixar on "Toy Story" (voicing the plastic dinosaur Rex) and has since lent his voice to many of their films including "The Incredibles." 

As for the world of television, it would seemingly be easier to list the shows that haven't featured Shawn in some capacity — highlights include "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "Sex and the City," both iterations of "Gossip Girl," "BoJack Horseman," "Regular Show," "Mr. Robot," "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," "Evil," and Dan Harmon's "Krapopolis." Most of our readers likely know him as Dr. John Sturgis on "Young Sheldon."

The muscle of Vizzini's operation was the massive brawler Fezzik, played by professional wrestler and occasional actor André Roussimoff — better known as André the Giant. Standing at 7-foot, 4-inches, little movie magic was needed to emphasize Roussimoff's imposing stature and obvious strength.

By the time of "The Princess Bride," Roussimoff had only a handful of roles on his resume. He had been on the TV shows "The Fall Guy" and "The Six Million Dollar Man" and in films like "Conan the Destroyer." Tragically, he passed away in 1993 at the age of 46 due to heart failure. In 1994, he was posthumously featured in the little-known Sissy Spacek comedy "Trading Mom" (likely best remembered for starring a young Anna Chlumsky of "My Girl"). Over two decades later, HBO released a documentary about Roussimoff's life and career, which we highlighted as part of our "Daily Stream" series in 2022.

An of Fezzik and Vizzini, the fast-talking swordsman Inigo Montoya is one of the film's most memorable and quoted characters. For this melodramatic romantic role, production cast Broadway superstar Mandy Patinkin, already revered on the stage for his starring roles in Andrew Llyod Webber's "Evita" and Stephen Sondheim's "Sunday in the Park with George." He had also already crossed over to film using his musical bonafides (earning acclaim for "Yentl" and the film adaptation of "Ragtime"), though "The Princess Bride" has debatably become his defining project within the medium. His post-"Princess Bride" film career saw him featured in movies such as "Dick Tracy," "Smurfs: The Lost Village," and Hayao Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky" and "The Wind Rises."

Patinkin saw much more prominent success on television, however. In 1995, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for playing Dr. Jeffrey Geiger in "Chicago Hope," and he was nominated in the Guest Actor category the following year for playing himself on "The Larry Sanders Show." In 2003, he co-led the supernatural comedy series "Dead Like Me" for Showtime, created by future "Hannibal" creator Bryan Fuller. 

Soon after its end the following year, he signed on to lead the new CBS crime procedural "Criminal Minds," playing criminal profiler Jason Gideon (it has since run for over 15 seasons and spawned multiple spin-offs, though Patinkin departed after only two seasons). But perhaps the crown jewel of his TV career is the role of CIA division chief Saul Berenson in Showtime's lauded political thriller "Homeland." More recently, Patinkin starred in the 2024 Hulu murder mystery series "Death and Other Details," which was cancelled after one season.

Similar to Mandy Patinkin, Christopher Guest was no slouch when he was cast in the ensemble of "The Princess Bride" as Inigo Montoya's six-fingered archnemesis Count Tyrone Rugen. Most notably, the versatile artist had written and starred in Rob Reiner's 1984 musical comedy "This Is Spinal Tap," a hallmark of the mockumentary genre and a cult-classic in and of itself.

Guest continued to write, act, and direct after "The Princess Bride," starting with the little-remembered Kevin Bacon comedy "The Big Picture." He reunited with Bacon for a brief role in "A Few Good Men," then wrote, directed, and starred in the critically acclaimed box office bomb "Waiting for Guffman," a mockumentary about a community theater. His next two films, the dog show farce "Best in Show" and the folk musical comedy "A Mighty Wind" (both mockumentaries as well) were similarly well-received and performed better commercially.

His most recent efforts, however, have been met with a chilled critical reception — 2006's "For Your Consideration" and 2016's "Mascots" were both critical and commercial stumbles for Guest. However, Reiner and Guest have reunited for a sequel to "Spinal Tap" titled "Spinal Tap II: The End Continues," which is due for release in 2025.

Valerie, the wife of a healer that Westley was taken to after he's ruthlessly tortured, was played by adored comedienne Carol Kane. Kane had seen plenty of success up to this point, including in the TV sitcoms "All Is Forgiven" and "Taxi," acting opposite Andy Kaufman. She continued to be a favorite on the small screen, earning guest-starring roles in numerous high-profile series including "Sesame Street," "Tales from the Crypt," "Seinfeld," "Homicide: Life on the Street," "Two and a Half Men," and "Girls," among many others.

She was also given heftier responsibilities like starring roles on the short-lived CBS series "Pearl" and Amazon Prime Video's conspiracy thriller "Hunters," as well as recurring roles on the Fox DC Comics crime thriller "Gotham" and the HBO animated series "Animals." In recent years, she's probably best known for starring in the Netflix comedy series "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," playing the titular character's (Ellie Kemper) eccentric landlady Lillian Kaushtupper. Even more recently, "Star Trek" fans may have been introduced to her via "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds." As for film, her most memorable roles were in the movies "Scrooged" (as the ballet-dancing Ghost of Christmas Present), "The Addams Family," "Addams Family Values," and "Flashback."

Finally, for the role of the magical healer Miracle Max, Rob Reiner tapped another, albeit more minor, "Spinal Tap" actor — Billy Crystal. Crystal had only appeared in three feature films by this point, known mostly as a TV actor and comic, but he would soon become a household name.

In 1989, Reiner cast Crystal somewhat against type as the romantic lead in his comedy "When Harry Met Sally," which raised his star as a film actor astronomically. This led to leading roles in classic '90s films like "City Slickers," "Analyze This," and Disney-Pixar's "Monsters Inc." He also co-wrote, directed, and starred in "Mr. Saturday Night," which has since been turned into a Broadway musical that earned him a Tony Award nomination. On TV, he's best known for having hosted the Academy Awards numerous times to widespread acclaim. While "The Princess Bride" may not have been a runaway hit, it remains — as it does for almost every actor on this list — a unique, beloved moment in a legendary performer's career.