George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon (26 June 1866 – 5 April 1923) was an English aristocrat best known as the financial backer of the search for and the excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb in Valley of the Kings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Herbert,_5th_Earl_of_Carnarvon

Born at the family home, Highclere Castle, in Hampshire on 26 June 1866, George Herbert was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, succeeding to the Carnarvon title in 1890. On 26 June 1895 Carnarvon married Almina Victoria Maria Alexandra Wombwell, daughter of Marie Boyer, the wife of Frederick Charles Wombwell, but her real father was believed to be Alfred de Rothschild, the unmarried member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England who made Lady Carnarvon his heiress.

Exceedingly wealthy, Lord Carnarvon was at first best known as an owner of racehorses and as a reckless driver of early automobiles, suffering - in 1901 - a serious motoring accident in Germany which left him significantly disabled.

In 1902, the 5th Earl established Highclere Stud to breed thoroughbred racehorses. In 1905, he was appointed one of the Stewards at the new Newbury Racecourse. His family has maintained the connection ever since. His grandson, Henry George Reginald Molyneux Herbert, 7th Earl of Carnarvon, was racing manager to Queen Elizabeth II from 1969, and one of Her Majesty's closest friends.

The 5th Earl was an enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist, undertaking in 1907 to sponsor the excavation of nobles' tombs in Deir el-Bahari (Thebes). Howard Carter joined him as his assistant in the excavations in 1909. It is now established that it is Maspero, then Director of the Antiquities Department, who proposed Carter to Lord Carnavon. Lord Carnarvon received in 1914 the concession to dig in the Valley of the Kings, in replacement of Theodore Davies who had resigned. It was in 1922 that they together opened the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, exposing treasures unsurpassed in the history of archaeology.

On 5 April 1923, Carnarvon died in the Continental-Savoy Hotel in Cairo. This led to the story of the "Curse of Tutankhamun", the "Mummy's Curse". His death is most probably explained by blood poisoning (progressing to pneumonia) after accidentally shaving a mosquito bite infected with erysipelas. His colleague and employee, Howard Carter, the man most responsible for revealing the tomb of the young king, lived safely for another sixteen years.

Carnarvon's tomb, appropriately for an archaeologist, is located within an ancient hill fort overlooking his family seat at Beacon Hill, Burghclere, Hampshire

Carnarvon has been portrayed in popular culture in film, video game and television productions;[8]

Harry Andrews in the 1980 Columbia Pictures Television production The Curse of King Tut's Tomb

Julian Curry in the 1998 IMAX documentary Mysteries of Egypt

Julian Wadham in the 2005 BBC docudrama Egypt.

Evelyn Carnahan from the film "The Mummy" is an homage to Lord Carnarvon's daughter, Lady Evelyn

Lord Carnarvon, quest leader for the Archaeologist role in the classic text-based video game Nethack