DE CARVALHO: With sidekick Peter O'Toole, days and nights of work and play.

Photo by Getty Images

Well before he arrived at HBS, Michel Ray de Carvalho (MBA 1970) had led a charmed life. But it was only destined to get better. Already a veteran child actor at 17, he was tapped to play one of Peter O'Toole's young Arab sidekicks in the film Lawrence of Arabia, reissued last year for its 50th anniversary. In addition to having to learn how to ride a camel, his experience included tagging along for rest and recuperation in Beirut with O'Toole and Omar Sharif as—with the help of countless female admirers—they relaxed from the rigors of location shoots in the desert. Memorable partying ensued, but as de Carvalho commented to the Irish Daily Mail (November 12, 2012), "We couldn't possibly discuss the fun in an elegant family newspaper…they were the superstars and I was the bag carrier. But even superstars can only handle so much. And then the bag carrier…"

Photo by Desmond O'Neill

The son of a Brazilian-diplomat father and English mother, de Carvalho attended school in Switzerland and became such an accomplished skier that he represented Great Britain in the 1968 Winter Olympics, and again in 1972 and 1976, both times in the luge. By then, he had decided to give up moviemaking to attend Harvard College and HBS. He later embarked on a career in banking, married into the Heineken brewery empire, settled in London, raised a family, and rose to become vice-chairman of Citigroup. Perhaps his only regret: "Looking back, it was probably a mistake quitting acting."

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