Dodi Fayed, the multimillionaire playboy who died in crash that also killed Princess Diana, was no stranger to Hollywood. He was known not only for the successful movies he produced but for the lavish parties he held at his rented Beverly Hills mansions.

“He had some very close working relationships and some very close friendships” in the movie industry, said Pat Kingsley, president of PMK Public Relations, which represented Fayed’s movie interests in the United States. “He was every bit the gentleman that you would want to be involved with in business. He was kind and quite generous.”

Kingsley said he was a respected producer. “Whatever he wanted to do, the world was open to him.”

Fayed, 42, was the son of Mohamed Al Fayed, whose business empire included the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain and Harrods trade department store in London.

Dodi Fayed was buried on Sunday after a simple and private Islamic ceremony in London.

The younger Fayed financed or co-financed six films during the past 17 years, including Chariots of Fire (1981), which won the Oscar for Best Picture.

He was executive producer of Hook (1991), starring Dustin Hoffman, and producer of The Scarlet Letter (1995), starring Demi Moore.

He also helped finance Breaking Glass (1980), F/X (1986) and FX2 _ The Deadly Art of Illusion (1991). He was set to work on an upcoming film with Conspiracy Theory producer and director Richard Donner.

The unexpected success of Chariots of Fire gave him an entree into Hollywood. After arriving in Beverly Hills for the Academy Awards ceremony in 1982, he was so taken by the West Coast lifestyle that he moved his company to Los Angeles.

Single and charming, he seemed to bask in the glow of the celebrity crowd. He leased several mansions in Beverly Hills for prices ranging from $20,000 to $35,000 a month.

A typical star-studded Hollywood soiree included guests such as Brooke Shields, Robert Downey Jr. and Farrah Fawcett.

But not everything went smoothly. Fayed was sued repeatedly for failing to pay his rent and for skipping out on some of his movie commitments.

In 1995, according to the Mail of London, a $1 million suit accused him of selling distribution rights to major films he did not own. In another case, eventually settled out of court, a movie producer charged that Fayed did not deliver two promised films.

The lawsuits did not always have to do with business. Recently, a model who said she was jilted by Fayed filed a breach of contract suit. Attorney Gloria Allred, representing Kelly Fisher, said at an Aug. 14 news conference in Los Angeles that Fayed persuaded Fisher to abandon a successful modeling career, then figuratively left her at the altar when he took up with Diana.

Fisher also claimed that Fayed owed her $440,000.

Fayed’s family dismissed Fisher’s claim. “We are content to leave it to the good sense of the British and American people to judge this development for what it is,” they said in a statement.

Fayed, known in Egypt by the name Emad, was born in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria in 1955. He left in 1970 to finish his schooling in Switzerland.

His friendship with Diana started to blossom only five weeks ago, and in that time, Britain’s papers were filled with photographs of the princess and her playboy kissing and embracing on his yacht or in the Mediterranean.

“We relaxed. . . . We had a good time,” he said after one vacation. “We are very good friends.”