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François-Marie Banier

Biography

François-Marie Banier (born 27 June 1947) is a French novelist, playwright, artist, actor and photographer. His published works include Le Passé Composé (1971) and Balthazar, Fils de Famille (1985).

Banier is particularly known for his photographs of celebrities and other public figures and for his friendships with members of high society. In a prominent legal case, in 2016 he was convicted of 'abuse of weakness' of the elderly billionaire Liliane Bettencourt.

Banier was born on June 27, 1947 in Paris, France. A second son, he grew up in a middle-class family in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. He has claimed he had been "completely incomprehensible to [his] parents". Although Banier was brought up as a Catholic, his Hungarian-born father (actual name: Banyaï) concealed the fact that he had converted from Judaism under the Nazi regime. His father was an advertising executive, who beat him for disobeying “idiotic rules” and this led him to attempt suicide at the age of 15.

Despite his modest background, from an early age he was a precocious and hyperactive talent, who was able to develop friendships with some of Paris' wealthiest arts patrons and artists. At the age of 16, he met Salvador Dalí, who would send his car to bring Banier to his suite at the Hotel Meurice to discuss art. At the age of 19, he befriended the wealthy heiress and patron of the arts Marie-Laure de Noailles who was then 64.

By the time he was 20, Banier was working as the house press officer for Pierre Cardin. While working at Cardin, he began taking photographs, and among his earliest subjects was novelist Truman Capote.

In 1969, Banier published his first novel, Les Résidences secondaires ou la Vie distraite (Second Homes or Distracted Life), at the age of 22. Around the same time, a well-known Parisian designer and antique dealer Madeleine Castaing collected some of his photographs.