El Glaoui was born in Marrakesh, Morocco, on December 23, 1923,[1][2] to the last Pasha of Marrakesh, Thami El Glaoui. The artist credited British Prime Minister Winston Churchill with convincing his powerful father to let him pursue painting as a career, particularly after a 1943 meeting when the Pasha sought and received Churchill's opinion of his son's paintings.[3]