J. Paul Getty
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Jean Paul Getty (December 15, 1892–June 6, 1976) was an American industrialist and founder of the Getty Oil Company.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota into a family already in the petroleum business, he was one of the first people in the world with a fortune of over $1 billion U.S. dollars. He was an avid collector of art and antiquities, and his collection forms the basis of the J. Paul Getty Museum in California.
He enrolled at the University of Southern California, then at Berkeley before graduating in 1914 at Oxford with degrees in economics and political science. He worked during the summers on his father's oil fields in Oklahoma. Running his own oil company in Tulsa, he made his first million by 1916. However, in 1917, he announced that he was retiring to become a Los Angeles-based playboy. (He married five times.) Although he eventually returned to business, Getty had lost his father's respect. Just before George Franklin Getty died in 1929, he believed that Jean Paul would destroy the family company, and told him so.
He moved to England in the 1950s, where he lived and worked at his 16th-century Tudor estate, Sutton Place near Guildford, until his death.
Despite his vast wealth, he was notoriously tight-fisted: he had pay phones installed in his home, saved bits of string until he had enough to tie up a parcel, and washed his own underwear. In 1973, his grandson, J. Paul III, was kidnapped. Getty refused to pay the ransom until he was sent the boy's severed right ear.
He is at times referred to as Jean Paul Getty, Sr. to distinguish him from his son Jean Paul Getty, Jr. His great-grandson, Balthazar Getty, is an actor.
Published works
- How to be Rich, a collection of Getty's essays.