Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton KBE (July 5, 1904 - February 27, 1994) was an Anglo-Italian writer, scholar and dilettante who is probably most famous for being believed, incorrectly, to have inspired the character of "Anthony Blanche" in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited (1945). Waugh himself wrote, "The characters in my novels often wrongly identified with Harold Acton were to a great extent drawn from Brian Howard". The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross (GBE) Knight Commander... is the 186th day of the year (187th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ... is the 58th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar). ... (ital. ... Evelyn Waugh, as photographed in 1940 by Carl Van Vechten Arthur Evelyn St. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by the English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. ... Brian Christian de Claiborne Howard (13 March 1905 - 15 January 1958) was an English poet, whose work belied a spectacularly precocious start in life; in the end he became more of a journalist, writing for the New Statesman. ...

Acton's own works include Memoirs of an Aesthete and The Bourbons of Naples, 1734-1825, a gossipy history of the Bourbon rulers of the Kingdom of Naples in the 18th century. During his lifetime Harold Acton promoted his claim of descent from Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet, who had served as Prime Minister of Naples during much of this period, but there is no basis in fact of this relationship (see James Lord, "Some Remarkable Men"). Also see:  Early Modern France The House of Bourbon is an important European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty. ... The Kingdom of Naples was born out of the division of the Kingdom of Sicily after the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. ... Sir John Francis Edward Acton, 6th Baronet (1736 - August 12, 1811) was prime minister of Naples under Ferdinand IV. He was the son of Edward Acton, a physician at Besançon, and was born there in 1736, succeeding to the title and estates in 1791, on the death of his...

In 1974 he was named a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE). The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross (GBE) Knight Commander...

Following Acton's death at the age of 89, DNA testing revealed the existence of a half-sister, whose heirs have gone to court to challenge Acton's $500 million bequest to New York University. The structure of part of a DNA double helix Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a nucleic acid molecule that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. ... New York University (NYU) is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university in New York City. ...

Acton was buried at the Cimitero Evangelico degli Allori in the suburb of Florence, Galluzzo (Italy). Florence (Italian: ) is the capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy. ... Galluzzo is a suburb of Florence, Italy, located in the southern extremity of the florentine comune. ...

External link

• Harold Acton at the Gay/Bi/Lesbian Encyclopedia