Michael Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray

The Viscount Cowdray
Born (1944-06-17) 17 June 1944
Spouse(s) Ellen Erhardt
Marina Rose Cordle Pearson
Parents Weetman Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray
Lady Anne Pamela Bridgeman

Michael Orlando Weetman Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray DL (born 17 June 1944)[1] is a British peer and film producer. He is the 65th richest person and the 10th largest landowner in the United Kingdom.

Biography

Early life

Lord Cowdray is the son of Weetman Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray (1910–1995).[1][2][3] His great-grandfather, Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray (1856–1927), had been created Viscount Cowdray in 1917.[1][4] His mother was Lady Anne Pamela Bridgeman (1913–2009)[1] daughter of Orlando Bridgeman, 5th Earl of Bradford (1873–1957).[1] He has a half-brother, Charles Anthony Pearson, who owns the Dunecht estate, including Dunecht House, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.[4]

He attended Gordonstoun School, a boarding school in Elgin, Moray, Scotland.[4]

Career

He dabbled in farming and later in finance, working in the City of London.[4] He then served in the British Army.[4]

In the late 1960s, he started a career as a film producer, running the film production company Cupid Productions.[3][5][6] He produced Sympathy for the Devil, a film starring The Rolling Stones and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, in 1968.[6][7]

Personal life

In 1970, he had a child out of wedlock, Sebastian William Orlando Pearson, with Barbara Page.[1] In 1977 he was married Ellen Erhardt.[1] They lived in Ibiza, Spain.[4] They were divorced in 1984. In 1985, he was listed in Debrett's Peerage as a resident of Le Schuylkill, a high-rise building in Monaco.[8]

In 1987, he married Marina Rose Cordle, daughter of John Cordle, a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1959 to 1977.[1][2] They have five children:

Lord Cowdray lives at Cowdray Park in Midhurst, West Sussex.[4][10][11] In 2010, he was the second-richest person in Sussex and the 65th richest person in the UK, with an estimated wealth of £850 million.[10] As of May 2012, he was worth an estimated £500 million.[11] In September 2010, he put Cowdray Park up for sale for £25 million with the intention of downsizing, but did not find a buyer.[11]

Viscount Cowdray is also a supporter of the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party, having donated over £35,000 to the party since 2008.[12]

He is a Buddhist and has served on the Board of Trustees of the Tibet House Trust for twenty years.[2][7]

Filmography

As a producer

As an executive producer

Ancestry


References

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Weetman Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray		 Viscount Cowdray
1995-Present 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
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