Lucien Barrière
Lucien Barrière (14 January 1923 – 17 September 1990) was a French businessman who founded the Lucien Barrière group, a large company that runs casinos, luxury hotels, resorts, and restaurants. He came from a modest goat-raising family in Ardèche, France, and in 1962 his uncle François André chose him to lead several successful casinos and hotels.
The group owned famous places such as the Deauville, Cannes, and La Baule casinos, and hotels like the Normandy Barrière, Royal Barrière, and Hôtel du Golf Barrière de Deauville. He had become general manager in 1959 and led the business for about 30 years, focusing on luxury, elegance, and the French joie de vivre.
He married Martha Szentgyörgyi, a Hungarian dancer. Martha had a daughter from a previous marriage, Diane, whom Lucien adopted and trained, naming her the heir.
In 1962 he founded the Lucien Barrière group, one of the first French companies to manage both casinos and luxury hotels. In 1975 he helped start the Deauville American Film Festival, with Michel d’Ornano, André Halimi, and Lionel Shushan.
Barrière died in Caen in 1990 after a cardiac arrest following a heart procedure. His adopted daughter Diane Desseigne became the head of the group and continued the family business. She married Dominique Desseigne. In 1995 she survived a serious plane crash that left her quadriplegic and died in 2001 at age 44.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 11:22 (CET).