Alain-Philippe Malagnac d'Argens de Villèle
Alain-Philippe Malagnac, later Malagnac d'Argens de Villèle (16 July 1951, in Paris – 16 December 2000, in Saint-Etienne-du-Grès) was the long-time companion of French writer Roger Peyrefitte,[1] their relationship being the subject of several of the latter's works. Malagnac was also a businessman and art collector. He married singer Amanda Lear.
Scion of a French upper-middle-class family, 12-year-old Alain-Philippe had a minor role in the film Les Amitiés particulières (English title: This Special Friendship), released in 1964, based on the award-winning autobiographical novel by Roger Peyrefitte. Malagnac met Peyrefitte on the set, from when they started a long association professionally and personally. This formed the background to Peyrefitte's novel, Notre Amour (Éd. Flammarion, 1967) and to L'Enfant de cœur, (an allusion to Malagnacs role as a choirboy (Enfant de Choeur) in the film).
At the age of sixteen Malagnac became Peyrefitte's secretary. As a young man he was eventually adopted by a childless aristocratic lady, last of her lineage, called d'Argens de Villèle, and was allowed to join her name to his. Contrary to what was sometimes said, Malagnac was not adopted as the son of Peyrefitte. He was at one time his universal heir, but it is not sure that this lasted until Peyrefitte's death.
As an adult, Malagnac's career (often financed by Peyrefitte) included the ownership of Le Bronx, one of the first openly gay night-clubs in Paris, the import of US king crab, and briefly the management of French singer Sylvie Vartan, a disastrous undertaking which almost bankrupted Peyrefitte, who was forced to sell artworks and erotic antiquities to pay the resulting debts.
In 1978 Malagnac met Amanda Lear in Paris, and in April 1979, while on a trip to the United States, they married in Las Vegas. Their marriage lasted until his death. On December 16, 2000, Malagnac was killed by smoke in a fire at his recently bought farmhouse in Saint-Étienne-du-Grès.[2] He died just six weeks after Peyrefitte.
Literature
- Antoine Deléry, Roger Peyrefitte le sulfureux, biography, Montpellier, H&O, 2011
