Robert Carrier McMahon was born in
Tarrytown, New York, the third son of a wealthy property lawyer father of Irish descent; his mother was the
Franco-German daughter of a millionaire. After his parents went bankrupt in the 1930s
Great Depression, they maintained their lifestyle by firing their servants and preparing their own elaborate
dinner parties. Educated in New York City, Robert took part-time art courses and trained to become an actor. He had a part in the Broadway
revue New Faces, Post World War II Carrier volunteered to serve in the
United States Army during World War II as an intelligence officer in the
Office of Strategic Services, a wartime forerunner of the
Central Intelligence Agency. Speaking fluent French and understanding German thanks to his parentage, Carrier arrived in England in 1943, and after
D-Day served in Paris as a
cryptographer in General
Charles de Gaulle's headquarters. Although priced at 70
shillings, (), it sold 11 million copies. From this greater publicity flowed a substantial
partwork magazine published weekly by
Marshall Cavendish between 1981 and 1983, After closing the also Michelin two starred Camden Passage restaurant, Carrier took a short stay in New York, and from 1984 went to live in France and at his restored villa in
Morocco, regularly accompanied by his friend Oliver Lawson Dick. ==Television==