John Paul Getty Jr.

John Paul Getty (September 7, 1932 - April 17, 2003) was a wealthy American-born British philanthropist and book-collector.

He was the son of Jean Paul Getty, Sr. (1892-1976), one of the richest men in the world, and of his wife Anne Rork. The family's wealth was the result of the oil business founded by George Franklin Getty.

At birth he was given the name Eugene Paul Getty, but in later life he adopted, and was better known by, the names Jean Paul Getty, Jr., John Paul Getty and Paul Getty

His father expected him to prove himself: his first job was pumping oil for $100 a week. He attended a Jesuit high school and the University of San Francisco, but he did not graduate college. He was drafted into the U.S. Army to serve in Korea.

In 1956 he married Gail Harris, by whom he had four children: J. Paul (born 1956), Aileen (born 1957), Mark (born 1960), and Ariadne (born 1962).

In 1959, he took control of Getty Oil's Rome division, and became addicted to both alcohol and heroin. He was a registered heroin addict in Britain for years, and drug use ended his first marriage (they divorced in 1964).

He married for the second time, on December 10, 1966, to Talitha Pol, the daughter of painter William Pol & step-granddaughter of painter Augustus John. She died of a drug overdose on July 14, 1971. This marriage produced one son, Tara Gabriel Galaxy Gramaphone Getty (born 1968). He became reclusive following the death of Talitha, and suffered from depression for many years. He left Italy and took up residence in Chelsea in 1972.

In 1973 his son Paul III was kidnapped in Rome and held in the Calabrian Mountains, chained to a stake in a cave. Getty did not have enough money to pay the $17 million ransom demand, and his father refused to help. "I have 14 other grandchildren," he said, "and if I pay one penny now, then I will have 14 kidnapped grandchildren." When one of his son's ears was delivered by mail to a newspaper in Rome (delivery had been delayed by three weeks because of a postal strike), his father agreed to help out with the ransom payment. This son later took a mixture of prescription drugs which left him comatose for six weeks and left him paralysed and visually impaired.

In 1976, Paul II's father died, but had essentially written his son out of his will, leaving him $500. Paul II's money came from a family trust and his grandmother. After his father's death, he was able to stop using drugs.

Getty's daughter Aileen, a cocaine addict, married Christopher Wilding, son of Elizabeth Taylor, in 1981. She became HIV positive and developed AIDS in 1990. She is active in activities relating to the impact of AIDS on women. She is separated from Mr. Wilding since 1989.

Paul Getty, awarded a KBE in 1987, has given over £140m to the cause of culture. The National Gallery alone has received £50m from him. In December, 1997 he was granted British citizenship. The Queen is reported to have commented: 'Now you can use your title, that's nice.'

In 1994, he married his third wife, Victoria Holdsworth, who had helped him conquer his drug addiction.

He became greatly interested in cricket, and built a cricket ground at Wormsely Lodge, his 2,500 acre Buckinghamshire estate, where he also built a large library, collecting such treasures as a first edition of Chaucer, Ben Jonson's annotated copy of Spenser, and Shakespeare's First, Second, Third, and Fourth Folios.

His personal fortune was estimated as about £1.6 billion. He donated significant support for the National Gallery, the British Museum, the British Film Institute, Hereford Cathedral, and the Imperial War Museum.

In June, 2001, he gave £5 million to the Conservative Party.

Death

He died at 10.40am on April 17, 2003 in the London Clinic, after being admitted for treatment for a recurrent chest infection.

Many tributes were paid to him, including from John Major, former Conservative Prime Minister, who said: "Paul Getty was a truly remarkable man whom I was privileged to know as a friend."

He is survived by five children (three sons and two daughters) and his widow, Victoria Holdsworth.