13 Facts About Nubar Gulbenkian

Nubar Sarkis Gulbenkian was an Armenian-British business magnate and socialite born in the Ottoman empire.

Nubar Gulbenkian was admitted as a student to the Middle Temple on 18 October 1917, but was not Called to the Bar.

Nubar Gulbenkian was living in what became Vichy France when Nazi Germany invaded and occupied France in summer 1940.

Later, Nubar Gulbenkian was attached to the Iranian Embassy in London in an honorary role.

Nubar Gulbenkian was initially the protege of Henri Deterding at Royal Dutch Shell but later made an independent fortune which allowed him to live a highly extravagant lifestyle.

An associate claimed that "Nubar Gulbenkian is so tough that every day he tires out three stockbrokers, three horses and three women".

Nubar Gulbenkian was a regular on the international playboy scene.

Nubar Gulbenkian was an early guest of John Freeman on the BBC series Face to Face in 1959, but refused to sign a contract or accept a fee for his appearance.

Nubar Gulbenkian was married three times, "I've had good wives, as wives go, and as wives go, two of them went".

Nubar Gulbenkian courted Marie Berthe Edmee de Ayala, daughter of the French champagne tycoon Louis d'Ayala, for 14 years before they married in 1948.

Nubar Gulbenkian lived at Arlington House, a block of flats close to London's Ritz Hotel, and at a former rectory in Hoggeston, near Bletchley, Buckinghamshire.

Nubar Gulbenkian died on 10 January 1972 at the English Hospital in Cannes, France, and had lived nearby at his "sumptuous estate" the Domaine des Colles at Valbonne.

Controversy continued to follow him after his death due to the vague nature of his father's will, which appeared to suggest that everybody Nubar was employed by or stayed with during his life should receive some money.