Michel Ray(I)

Actor Michel Rey, later Michel de Carvalho, was born Michael Ray Popper in Buckinghamshire, to German Jewish parents who had moved to London in the 1930s. He was educated in Switzerland, where he learned to ski. His parents were friends of producer Michael Balcon, who was looking for a boy with skiing skills for his 1954 film The Divided Heart (1954). Young Michel fit the part perfectly and started a film career, including most memorably with playing the role of the Mexican boy, Leonardo, who tries to save his bull, in the Academy Award-winning film The Brave One (1956). His acting roles culminated in playing Faraj in Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The project took eighteen months, causing Michel to reflect on the impact his film work was having on his education. He decided to quit acting instead attending Harvard University. He graduated in business studies, and went on to take a Masters (MBA). In the meantime, he pursued his passion for winter sports, representing Britain in the Winter Olympics in Grenoble 1968 (ski), Sapporo 1972 (luge) and Innsbruck 1976 (luge). After university, he joined merchant bankers White Weld & Co, before moving on to NM Rothschild and Credit Suisse First Boston. In his London city career in investment banking, he made his first millions. In 1995 he joined Nikko Securities, and in 1998 became the first non-Japanese member of the main board.

In the early 1980s, he married his childhood friend, Charlene, daughter of Alfred "Freddie" Heineken. Her mother was Lucille Cummins, daughter of a Kentucky Bourbon maker. When her father died in January 2002, he left his controlling interest, 50.05%, in the Heineken brewing empire to the couple. With an estimated wealth of £3 billion or $4.2 billion, Michel's life story is more glamorous than many a Hollywood fiction.