Lucien Barrière (14 January 1923 – 17 September 1990) was a prominent French entrepreneur and businessman, best known as the founder and heir of the Lucien Barrière group. This group stands as one of the largest conglomerates comprising casinos, luxury hotels, resorts, and restaurants.
Biography
He was born in
Ardèche
Ardèche (; , ; ) is a Departments of France, department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche (river), Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019.Southeastern France, from a modest, goat raising family.
In 1962, he was chosen by his uncle François André, who had no direct descendants, to succeed him as head of several successful companies specializing in
casino
A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...
s and luxury hotels operation. The company's flagship assets included renowned establishments such as the casinos of
Deauville
Deauville () is a communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados department, Normandy (administrative region), Normandy, northwestern France. Major attractions include its port, harbour, Race track, race course, marinas, con ...
,
Cannes
Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...
, and
La Baule
La Baule-Escoublac (; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Écoubiâ'', , ), commonly referred to as La Baule, is a communes of France, commune in Loire-Atlantique, a departments of France, department in Pays de la Loire, western France.
History
Seaside re ...
, along with esteemed hotels like the Normandy Barrière, Royal Barrière, and the Hôtel du Golf Barrière de Deauville.
In 1959, he became the general manager of the group. For thirty years he developed the successful Barriere empire following the same policy as his predecessor: luxury, sophistication, perfection, elegance, refinement, friendliness, and cultivating the French joie de vivre.
He married Martha Szentgyörgyi (died 11 October 2008), a Hungarian dancer. Martha had a daughter from a previous marriage, Diane, born in 1957, whom he adopted and raised as his own. He taught her the know-how of the trade, before designating her as the sole heir of his luxury empire.
In 1962, he founded the Lucien Barrière group, one of the first French companies charged with managing casinos and luxury hotels.
In 1975, Lucien Barrière sponsored the creation of the
Deauville American Film Festival
The Deauville American Film Festival () is a yearly film festival devoted to Cinema of the United States, American cinema, which has taken place since 1975 in Deauville, France.
It was established by Lionel Chouchan, André Halimi, and then ...
, alongside the major proponents of this idea, the Mayor of Deauville Michel d'Ornano, André Halimi and Lionel Shushan.
In 1990, he died at Caen University Hospital at the age of 67 due to cardiac arrest, following complications resulting from a coronary angioplasty carried out by Professor Grollier. Diane, married to the notary Dominique Desseigne, succeeded her adoptive father as head of the group and pursued the same successful policy as her predecessors. In July 1995 she was the victim of a serious plane crash that left her
quadriplegic
Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is defined as the dysfunction or loss of Motor control, motor and/or Sense, sensory function in the Cervical vertebrae, cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weak ...