Editing J. Paul Getty

{{short description|American industrialist (1892–1976)}}
{{Distinguish|John Paul Getty Jr.|John Paul Getty III}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = J. Paul Getty
| image              = JP Getty,1944.jpg
| image_size         = 
| caption            = Getty in 1944
| birth_name         = Jean Paul Getty
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1892|12|15|mf=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Minneapolis]], Minnesota, U.S.
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1976|6|6|1892|12|15|mf=y}}
| death_place        = [[Woking]],<!--Sutton Place is in the borough of Woking--> Surrey, England
| burial_place       = [[Getty Villa]]<br>Los Angeles, California
| education          = [[University of California, Berkeley]] <br/> [[Magdalen College, Oxford]]
| occupation         = [[Businessman]]
| parents            = {{Plainlist|
* [[George Getty|George Franklin Getty]]
* Sarah Catherine McPherson Risher
}}
| children           = {{Plainlist|
* 5, including:
* [[John Paul Getty Jr.]]
* [[Gordon Getty|Gordon Peter Getty]]
}}
| spouse             = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Jeanette Demont|1923|1926|reason=divorce}}
* {{marriage|Allene Ashby|1926|1928|reason=divorce}}
* {{marriage|Adolphine Helmle|1928|1932|reason=divorce}}
* {{marriage|[[Ann Rork]]|1932|1936|reason=divorce}}
* {{marriage|[[Teddy Getty Gaston|Louise Dudley "Teddy" Lynch]]|1939|1958|reason=divorce}}
}}
| partners           = [[Lady Ursula d'Abo]]<br>[[Mary Teissier]]<br>Rosabella Burch<br>Penelope Kitson
}}

'''Jean Paul Getty Sr.''' ({{IPAc-en|'|g|ɛ|t|i}}; December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976) was an [[United States|American]] petroleum industrialist who founded the [[Getty Oil|Getty Oil Company]] in 1942 and was the patriarch of the [[Getty family]].<ref name=NYTobit>{{cite news |last=Whitman |first=Alden |author-link=Alden Whitman |date=June 6, 1976 |title=J. Paul Getty Dead at 83; Amassed Billions From Oil |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1215.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |department=On This Day |access-date=March 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330155805/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1215.html |archive-date=March 30, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> A native of [[Minneapolis]], Minnesota, he was the son of pioneer oilman [[George Getty]]. In 1957, ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]'' magazine named J. Paul Getty the [[Wealthiest Americans (1957)|wealthiest living American]],<ref>{{cite news|first=Robert|last=Lubar|url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1986/03/17/67242/index.htm|title=The Odd Mr. Getty: The possibly richest man in the world was mean, miserly, sexy, fearful of travel and detergents|work=[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]|location=New York City|date=March 17, 1986|access-date=March 30, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813224157/http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1986/03/17/67242/index.htm|archive-date=August 13, 2017}}</ref> while the 1966 ''[[Guinness Book of Records]]'' declared him to be the world's wealthiest private citizen, worth an estimated $1.2&nbsp;billion (approximately ${{Inflation|US-GDP|1.2|1966|r=1}} billion in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}).<ref>{{cite book|first1=Norris|last1=McWhirter|first2=Ross|last2=McWhirter|title=Guinness Book of Records|publisher=Jim Pattison Group|location=London, England|year=1966|page=229}}</ref> At the time of his death, he was worth more than $6&nbsp;billion (approximately ${{Inflation|US-GDP|6|1976|r=0}} billion in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}).<ref name="Lenzner">Lenzner, Robert. 1985. ''The great Getty: the life and loves of J. Paul Getty, richest man in the world''. New York: Crown Publishers. {{ISBN|0-517-56222-7}}</ref> A book published in 1996 ranked him as the 67th wealthiest American who ever lived (based on his wealth as a percentage of the concurrent [[Measures of national income and output|gross national product]]).<ref>{{cite book|first1 = Michael M.|last1 = Klepper|first2 = Robert E.|last2 = Gunther|title = The wealthy 100: from Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates: a ranking of the richest Americans, past and present|publisher = Carol Publishing Group|place = Secaucus, New Jersey|year = 1996|isbn = 0-8065-1800-6|url = https://archive.org/details/wealthy100frombe00klep}}</ref>
<!-- A paragraph about Mr Getty’s career here would be an improvement. This might necessitate the moving of the (frankly excessive) coverage of his net worth. -->

Getty was known for his frugality, going so far as to haggle with the kidnappers when his [[John Paul Getty III|grandson]] was held to ransom in 1973. He had five children and divorced five times. Getty was an avid collector of art and antiquities. His collection formed the basis of the [[J. Paul Getty Museum]] in [[Los Angeles]]; more than $661&nbsp;million of his estate was left to the museum after his death.<ref name="Lenzner" /> He established the [[J. Paul Getty Trust]] in 1953. The trust, which is the world's wealthiest art institution, operates the J. Paul Getty Museum Complexes: the [[Getty Center]], the [[Getty Villa]] and the [[Getty Foundation]], the [[Getty Research Institute]], and the [[Getty Conservation Institute]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Wyatt |first=Edward |date=April 30, 2009 |title=Getty Fees and Budget Reassessed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/arts/design/30gett.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |location=Los Angeles |page=C1 |access-date=March 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180206190152/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/arts/design/30gett.html |archive-date=February 6, 2018 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

== Background ==
Getty was born in [[Minneapolis]] to Sarah Catherine McPherson (Risher) and [[George Getty|George Franklin Getty]], who was an attorney in the insurance industry. He grew up as a [[Methodist]]; his father was a devout [[Christian Scientist]] and both his father and mother were strict [[teetotalers]]. Jean was of part [[Scottish American|Scottish]] descent.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=2019 |title=The McPherson ancestry of the Getty Family |magazine=Creag Dubh |number=71 |page=62 |publisher=Clan MacPherson Association}}</ref> In 1903, when Jean was 10 years old, his father traveled to [[Bartlesville, Oklahoma]] and bought the [[mineral rights]] for 1,100 acres of land. The Getty family then moved to Bartlesville, where J. Paul Getty attended the Garfield School. Within a few years Getty had established wells on the land which produced 100,000 barrels of [[crude oil]] a month.<ref name="Pearson1995">{{cite book |last=Pearson |first=John |date=1995 |title=Painfully Rich: J. Paul Getty and his heirs |publisher=HarperCollins| isbn=9780333590331}}</ref>{{rp|page=20}}

As newly minted millionaires, the family moved to [[Los Angeles]], but J. Paul Getty later returned to [[Oklahoma]]. At age 14, he attended the [[Harvard Military School]] for a year, followed by [[John H. Francis Polytechnic High School|Polytechnic High School]] in [[Sun Valley, Los Angeles]] studying reading.<ref name="NYTobit" /> He became fluent in French, German and Italian, and conversational in Spanish, Greek, Arabic, and Russian. A love of the [[classics]] led Getty to acquire reading proficiency in [[ancient Greek]] and [[Latin]].<ref name="NYTobit" />

Getty enrolled at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] but did not complete a degree.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/jul/12/artsfeatures2|title=The Getty fortune|last=Tran|first=Mark|date=July 12, 2001|work=The Guardian|access-date=March 17, 2019|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uuLjE09MKO0C&q=J.+Paul+Getty+uc+berkeley&pg=PR9|title=The J. Paul Getty Museum: Handbook of the Collections|last=Museum|first=J. Paul Getty|date=2007|publisher=Getty Publications|isbn=9780892368877|language=en}}</ref> Enamored of Europe after traveling abroad with his parents in 1910, he enrolled at the [[University of Oxford]] in [[Oxford|Oxford, England]] on November 28, 1912.<ref name=":0" /> A [[letter of introduction]] by President of the United States [[William Howard Taft]] enabled him to gain independent instruction from tutors at [[Magdalen College, Oxford|Magdalen College]]. Although he was not registered at Magdalen, he claimed the aristocratic students "accepted me as one of their own" and he fondly boasted of the friends he made, including [[Edward VIII|the Prince of Wales]], the future King [[Edward VIII of the United Kingdom]].<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|p=29}} He obtained a diploma in economics and political science from Oxford in June 1913,<ref name=":0" /> then spent months traveling throughout Europe and [[Egypt]] before meeting his parents in [[Paris]] and returning with them to the U.S. in June 1914.

==Career==
[[File:Oklahoma Oil Corp. 1922.jpg|thumb|Share of the Oklahoma Oil Corp., issued on July 15, 1922, signed by President J. Paul Getty]]
In the autumn of 1914, George Getty gave his son $10,000 ({{inflation|US|10000|1914|fmt=eq|r=-4}}) to invest in expanding the family's oil field holdings in Oklahoma. The first lot he bought, the Nancy Taylor No. 1 Oil Well Site near [[Haskell, Oklahoma]], was crucial to his early financial success. The well struck oil in August 1915 and by the next summer the 40 percent net production royalty he accrued from it had made him a millionaire.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=34}}

In 1919, Getty returned to business in Oklahoma. During the 1920s, he added about $3&nbsp;million to his already sizable estate. His succession of marriages and divorces so distressed his father that Getty inherited only $500,000 of the $10&nbsp;million fortune his father left at the time of his death in 1930. Getty was left with one-third of the stock from George Getty Inc., while his mother received the remaining two-thirds, giving her a controlling interest.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=47}} In 1936, Getty's mother convinced him to contribute to the establishment of a $3.3&nbsp;million [[investment trust]], called the Sarah C. Getty Trust, to ensure the family's ever-growing wealth could be channeled into tax-free, secure income for future generations of the Getty family. The trust enabled Getty to have easy access to ready capital, which he was funneling into the purchase of [[Tidewater Petroleum]] stock.<ref name="Pearson1995" />{{rp|pages=63–65}}

During the [[Great Depression]], Getty acquired [[Pacific Western Oil Corporation]] and began the acquisition (completed in 1953) of the Mission Corporation which included [[Tidewater Petroleum|Tidewater Oil]] and [[Skelly Oil]]. In 1967, Getty merged these holdings into Getty Oil.<ref>{{Cite news|title=3 GETTY UNITS SET A SINGLE COMPANY| work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/09/21/83140834.html?pageNumber=76|access-date=February 6, 2021|language=en}}</ref> In 1948–49, Getty paid [[Ibn Saud]] $9.5&nbsp;million in cash, guaranteed $1&nbsp;million a year, and a royalty of 55 cents a barrel for the [[Saudi Arabian-Kuwaiti neutral zone|Saudi Arabian Neutral Zone]] concession, which was 2.5 times more than what other major oil companies were paying in the Middle East at the time. Oil was finally discovered in March 1953.<ref name="dy">{{cite book |last1=Yergin |first1=Daniel |title=The Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power |date=1991 |publisher=Touchstone |location=New York |isbn=9780671799328 |pages=442–443, 790}}</ref> Since 1953, Getty's gamble produced 16&nbsp;million barrels a year, which contributed greatly to the fortune responsible for making him one of the richest people in the world.

{{Quote box
 |quote     = The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights.
 |author    = —a dictum attributed to Jean Paul Getty<ref name="Manser2007">{{cite book|last=Manser|first=Martin H.|title=The Facts on File dictionary of proverbs|url={{Google books|fgaUQc8NbTYC|page=PA186|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|access-date=May 26, 2011|date=April 2007|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-6673-5|page=186}}</ref>
}}
Getty's wealth and ability to speak Arabic enabled his unparalleled expansion into the Middle East. He owned the controlling interest in about 200 businesses, including Getty Oil. Getty owned [[Getty Oil]], Getty Inc., George F. Getty Inc., [[Pacific Western Oil Corporation]], Mission Corporation, Mission Development Company, [[Tidewater Oil]], [[Skelly Oil]], Mexican Seaboard Oil, Petroleum Corporation of America, [[Spartan Aircraft Company]], Spartan Cafeteria Company, Minnehoma Insurance Company, Minnehoma Financial Company, [[Pierre Hotel]], Pierre Marques Hotel, a 15th-century palace and nearby castle at Ladispoli on the coast northwest of Rome, a Malibu ranch home, and [[Sutton Place, Surrey|Sutton Place]], a 72-room mansion near [[Guildford]], Surrey.<ref>{{cite news|first=Clyde H.|last=Farnsworth|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/30/surrey-estate-seat-of-getty-empire.html|title=Surrey Estate Seat of Getty Empire|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=July 30, 1964|access-date=March 30, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330234411/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/30/surrey-estate-seat-of-getty-empire.html|archive-date=March 30, 2018}}</ref>

===Art collection===
Getty's first forays into collecting began in the late 1930s, when he was inspired by the collection of 18th-century French paintings and furniture of the landlord of his New York City penthouse, Amy Guest, a relation of [[Sir Winston Churchill]].<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=72}} A fan of 18th-century France, Getty began buying furniture from the period at reduced prices because of the depressed art market. He wrote several books on collecting, including ''Europe and the 18th Century'' (1949), ''Collector's Choice: The Chronicle of an Artistic Odyssey through Europe'' (1955) and ''The Joys of Collecting'' (1965). His stinginess limited the range of his collecting because he refused to pay full price. Getty's companion in later life, Penelope Kitson, said, "Paul was really too mean ever to allow himself to buy a great painting."<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=84}} Nonetheless, at the time of his death he owned more than 600 works valued at more than $4&nbsp;million, including paintings by [[Rubens]], [[Titian]], [[Thomas Gainsborough|Gainsborough]], [[Renoir]], [[Tintoretto]], [[Degas]], and [[Monet]].<ref name="NYTobit"/> Getty's reluctance to donate any more artworks to [[Los Angeles County]] after he realized how his first donations had been shabbily presented at the [[Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art]] caused [[Edward W. Carter]] to orchestrate the fundraising effort for the [[Los Angeles County Museum of Art]].<ref name="MargaretLeslieDavis">{{cite book|last1=Davis|first1=Margaret Leslie|title=The Culture Broker: Franklin D. Murphy and the Transformation of Los Angeles|date=2007|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=9780520925557|page=[https://archive.org/details/culturebrokerfra00davi/page/29 29]|url=https://archive.org/details/culturebrokerfra00davi|url-access=registration|access-date=August 30, 2016}}</ref> During the 1950s, Getty's interests shifted to [[Greco-Roman]] sculpture, which led to the building of the [[Getty Villa]] in the 1970s to house the collection.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|pages=86–87}} These items were transferred to the [[Getty Museum]] and the Getty Villa in Los Angeles after his death.

==Marriages, divorces and children==
Getty was a notorious womanizer from the time of his youth, which horrified his conservative parents. His lawyer, Robina Lund, once said, "Paul could hardly ever say 'no' to a woman, or 'yes' to a man."<ref name="vanityfair.com">{{cite news|first=Julie|last=Miller|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/03/fx-trust-john-paul-getty-girlfriends|title= Yes, J. Paul Getty Reportedly Had as Many Live-In Girlfriends as FX's ''Trust'' Claims|work=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]|location=New York City|date=March 25, 2018|access-date=March 30, 2018}}</ref> [[Lord Beaverbrook]] called him "priapic" and "ever-ready" in his sexual habits.<ref name="vanityfair.com"/> In 1917, when he was 25, Elsie Eckstrom filed a [[paternity suit]] against Getty in Los Angeles, claiming he was the father of her daughter, Paula.<ref name="Pearson1995" />{{rp|pages=36–37}} Eckstrom said that Getty had taken her virginity while she was drunk and fathered the child. His legal team tried to undermine her credibility by claiming that she had a history of promiscuity. Getty agreed to a settlement of $10,000, upon which Eckstrom left town with the baby.<ref name="Pearson1995" />{{rp|page=37}}<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-03-23-bk-5461-story.html| title=The Great Getty : THE LIFE AND LOVES OF J. PAUL GETTY—RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD by Robert Lenzner (Crown: $18.95; 304 pp.) : THE HOUSE OF GETTY by Russell Miller (Henry Holt: $17.65; 362 pp.)| author=Bevis Hillier| work=Los Angeles Times| date=March 26, 1986| access-date=April 5, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180406135502/http://articles.latimes.com/1986-03-23/books/bk-5461_1_j-paul-getty| archive-date=April 6, 2018| url-status=live| df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Getty was married and divorced five times. He had five sons with four of his wives:<ref name=Lenzner/><ref name=Vallely>{{cite news|first=Paul|last=Vallely|url=http://www.kin.co.uk/news/41.html|title=Don't keep it in the family|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101226081524/http://www.kin.co.uk/news/41.html |work=The Independent|location=London, England|date=July 19, 2007|via=[[Wayback Machine|The Wayback Machine]]|archive-date=December 26, 2010}}</ref>
# Jeanette Demont (married 1923 – divorced 1926); one son, [[George Getty#George Getty II|George F. Getty II]] (1924–1973).
# Allene Ashby (1926–1928); no children.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Jean Paul|last=Getty|title=As I see it: the autobiography of J. Paul Getty|url={{Google books|k-_hLLdVhCwC|page=PA91|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|publisher=Getty Publications|location=Los Angeles, California|year=1976|page=91|access-date= September 13, 2011}}</ref> Getty met 17-year-old Ashby, the daughter of a [[Texas]] rancher, in [[Mexico City]] while he was studying Spanish and overseeing his family's business interests. They eloped to [[Cuernavaca, Mexico]], but the marriage was bigamous as he was not yet divorced from Jeanette. The two quickly decided to dissolve the union while still in Mexico.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=42}}
# Adolphine Helmle (1928–1932); one son, Jean Ronald Getty (1929–2009), whose son, Christopher Ronald Getty, married [[Pia Getty|Pia Miller]], sister of [[Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece]]. Like his first and second wives, Adolphine was 17 when Getty met her in [[Vienna, Austria|Vienna]]. She was the daughter of a prominent German doctor who opposed her marriage to the twice-divorced, 36-year-old Getty.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=45}} The two eloped to Cuernavaca, where he had married Ashby, then settled in Los Angeles. After their son was born, Getty lost interest in her and her father convinced her to return to Germany with their son in 1929. After a protracted and contentious battle, their divorce was finalized in August 1932, with Adolphine receiving a huge sum for [[punitive damage]]s and full custody of Ronald.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|pages=48,59–60}}
# [[Ann Rork Light|Ann Rork]] (1932–1936); two sons, [[John Paul Getty Jr.]] (1932–2003) and [[Gordon Getty|Gordon Peter Getty]] (born 1933). Getty was introduced to Rork when she was 14, but she did not become his romantic partner until she was 21 in 1930. Because he was in the midst of his divorce from Adolphine, the couple had to wait two years to marry. He was largely absent during their marriage, staying for long stretches of time in Europe. She sued him for divorce in 1936, alleging emotional abuse and neglect. She described an incident while the two were abroad in Italy in which she claimed Getty forced her to climb to view the crater of [[Mount Vesuvius]] while she was pregnant with their first son.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=71}} The court ruled in her favor and she was awarded $2,500 per month in [[alimony]] plus $1,000 each in [[child support]] for her sons.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=71}}
# [[Teddy Getty Gaston|Louise Dudley "Teddy" Lynch]] (1939–1958); one son, Timothy Ware Getty (1946–1958).

In 2013, at age 99, Getty's fifth wife, Louise, known as Teddy Getty Gaston, published a memoir recounting how Getty had scolded her for spending money too freely in the 1950s on the treatment of their six-year-old son, Timmy, who had become blind from a [[brain tumor]]. Timmy died at age 12, and Getty, living in England apart from his family, who were in the U.S., did not attend the funeral. Gaston divorced Getty that year.<ref name=Newman>{{cite news|first=Judith|last=Newman|title=His Favorite Wife: 'Alone Together,' by Teddy Getty Gaston|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/books/review/alone-together-by-teddy-getty-gaston.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 30, 2013|access-date=August 31, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902181028/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/books/review/alone-together-by-teddy-getty-gaston.html|archive-date=September 2, 2013}}</ref> She died in 2017 at the age of 103.<ref>{{cite web|first=Mike|last=Miller|url=http://people.com/celebrity/teddy-getty-gaston-dies-j-paul-getty-ex-wife/|title=J. Paul Getty's Ex-Wife Teddy Getty Gaston Dies at 103|work=[[People (magazine)|People]]|location=New York City|date=April 10, 2017|access-date=March 30, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180913223616/https://people.com/celebrity/teddy-getty-gaston-dies-j-paul-getty-ex-wife/|archive-date=September 13, 2018}}</ref>

Getty was quoted as saying "A lasting relationship with a woman is only possible if you are a business failure"<ref name=Vallely/> and "I hate to be a failure. I hate and regret the failure of my marriages. I would gladly give all my millions for just one lasting marital success."<ref>{{cite web|first1=Linda|last1=Bloom|first2=Charlie|last2=Bloom|url=http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/stronger-the-broken-places/201204/the-price-success|title=The Price of Success|work=[[Psychology Today]]|publisher=Sussex Publishers|location=New York City|date=April 24, 2012|access-date=March 30, 2018}}</ref>

==Kidnapping of grandson John Paul Getty III==
{{main|Kidnapping of John Paul Getty III}}

In Rome on July 10, 1973, [['Ndrangheta]] kidnappers abducted Getty's 16-year-old grandson, [[John Paul Getty III]], and demanded $17&nbsp;million (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{Inflation|US|17000001|1973|r=-6}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}}){{Inflation-fn|US}} for his safe return. The family suspected a ploy by the rebellious teenager to extract money from his miserly grandfather.<ref name=TelegraphPaulObit>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1427781/Sir-Paul-Getty.html|title=Sir Paul Getty (obituary)|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|location=London, England|date=April 17, 2003|access-date=March 30, 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326085052/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1427781/Sir-Paul-Getty.html|archive-date=March 26, 2009}}</ref> [[John Paul Getty Jr.]] asked his father for the money, but was refused, arguing that his 13 other grandchildren could also become kidnapping targets if he paid.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1386478.stm|title=Profile: Sir John Paul Getty II|work=BBC News|location=London, England|date=June 13, 2001|access-date=March 30, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218093705/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1386478.stm|archive-date=February 18, 2007}}</ref> In November 1973, an envelope containing a lock of hair and a human ear arrived at a daily newspaper. The second demand had been delayed three weeks by an Italian postal strike.<ref name="TelegraphPaulObit" /> The demand threatened that Paul would be further mutilated unless the victims paid $3.2&nbsp;million. The demand stated: "This is Paul's ear. If we don't get some money within 10 days, then the other ear will arrive. In other words, he will arrive in little bits."<ref name="TelegraphPaulObit" />

When the kidnappers reduced their demand to $3&nbsp;million, Getty agreed to pay no more than $2.2&nbsp;million (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{Inflation|US|2200000|1973|r=-5}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}}{{Inflation-fn|US}}), the maximum that would be tax-deductible. He lent his son the remaining $800,000 at four percent interest. Getty's grandson was found alive on December 15, 1973, in a [[Lauria]] filling station, in the [[province of Potenza]], shortly after the ransom was paid.<ref>{{cite news|url= http://www.ilpost.it/2013/07/10/paul-getty/2/|work= [[Il Post]]|title= Il rapimento di Paul Getty|language= it|date= July 10, 2013|access-date= July 10, 2014|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140330001021/http://www.ilpost.it/2013/07/10/paul-getty/2/|archive-date= March 30, 2014|url-status= live|df= mdy-all}}</ref> After his release, the younger Getty called his grandfather to thank him for paying the ransom but Getty refused to come to the phone.<ref name="Weber2011">{{cite news|first=Bruce|last=Weber|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/world/europe/08gettyobit.html|title=J. Paul Getty III, 54, Dies; Had Ear Cut Off by Captors|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=February 7, 2011|access-date=March 30, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180324045356/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/world/europe/08gettyobit.html|archive-date=March 24, 2018}}</ref> Nine people associated with 'Ndrangheta were later arrested for the kidnapping, but only two were convicted.<ref name="Weber2011"/> Getty III was permanently affected by the trauma and became a drug addict. After a stroke brought on by a cocktail of drugs and alcohol in 1981, he was rendered speechless, nearly blind, and partially paralyzed for the rest of his life. He died on February 5, 2011, at age 54.<ref name="Weber2011"/>

Getty defended his initial refusal to pay the ransom on two grounds. He argued that his 13 other grandchildren could also become kidnapping targets if he paid<ref name="Weber2011"/> and said: "The second reason for my refusal was much broader-based. I contend that acceding to the demands of criminals and terrorists merely guarantees the continuing increase and spread of lawlessness, violence and such outrages as terror-bombings, 'skyjackings' and the slaughter of hostages that plague our present-day world."<ref>Getty, 1976, p. 139</ref> Nine of the kidnappers were apprehended, including [[Girolamo Piromalli]] and [[Saverio Mammoliti]], high-ranking members of the [['Ndrangheta]], a Mafia organization in Calabria.<ref name="tim280174">[https://web.archive.org/web/20081222050935/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,911066,00.html Catching the Kidnappers], ''Time'', January 28, 1974</ref> Two of the kidnappers were convicted and sent to prison; the others were acquitted for lack of evidence, including the 'Ndrangheta bosses. Most of the ransom money was never recovered.<ref name="Weber2011" /><ref>{{cite news |last=Woo |first=Elaine |date=February 7, 2011 |title=J. Paul Getty III dies at 54; scion of oil dynasty |url=https://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-john-paul-getty-iii-20110208,0,1147525.story |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

==Reputation for frugality==
Many anecdotal stories exist of Getty's thriftiness and parsimony, which struck observers as comical, even perverse, because of his extreme wealth.<ref name="Refinery29.com">{{cite news| first=Elana| last=Nicolaou| url=http://www.refinery29.com/2018/03/194296/was-jp-getty-cheap-refused-paying-ransom-trust-drama?bucketed=true| title=Was J Paul Getty Really THAT Cheap?| publisher=[[Refinery29]]| location=New York City| date=March 25, 2018| access-date=March 29, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330211313/https://www.refinery29.com/2018/03/194296/was-jp-getty-cheap-refused-paying-ransom-trust-drama?bucketed=true| archive-date=March 30, 2018| df=mdy-all}}</ref> The two best-known examples are his reluctance to pay his grandson's kidnapping ransom and a pay phone he had installed at Sutton Place. A darker incident was his fifth wife's claim that Getty had scolded her for spending too much on their terminally ill son's medical treatment, though he was worth tens of millions of dollars at the time.<ref name="Refinery29.com"/> He was well known for bargaining on almost everything to obtain the lowest possible price, including suites at luxury hotels and virtually all purchases of artwork and real estate. In 1959, Sutton Place, a 72-room mansion, was purchased from [[George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of Sutherland]], for £60,000, about half of what the duke paid for it 40 years earlier.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=113}}

*Getty's secretary claimed that Getty did his laundry by hand because he did not want to pay for his clothes to be laundered. When his shirts became frayed at the cuffs, he would trim the frayed parts rather than buy new shirts.<ref>{{cite news|first=Debbie|last=Jackson|url=http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/throwback-tulsa-billionaire-j-paul-getty-got-his-start-in/article_52fe4523-5205-5022-b612-c053c31312b4.html| title=Throwback Tulsa: Billionaire J. Paul Getty got his start in Tulsa | work=[[Tulsa World]]|location=Tulsa, Oklahoma|date=December 10, 2017| access-date=March 29, 2018}}</ref>
*Reusing stationery was another obsession of Getty's. He had a habit of writing responses to letters on the margins or back sides and mailing them back, rather than using a new sheet of paper. He also carefully saved and reused [[manila envelope]]s, rubber bands, and other office supplies.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|pages=69,121}}
*When Getty took a group of friends to a dog show in London, he made them walk around the block for 10 minutes until the tickets became half-priced at 5&nbsp;pm, because he did not want to pay the full 5 [[Shilling (British coin)|shillings]] per head.<ref name="Refinery29.com"/>
*Getty moved to [[Sutton Place, Surrey|Sutton Place]] in part because the cost of living was cheaper than in London, where he had resided at the [[The Ritz Hotel, London|Ritz]]. He once boasted to American columnist [[Art Buchwald]] that it cost 10 cents for a [[rum and coke]] at Sutton Place, whereas at the Ritz it was more than a dollar.<ref name="Refinery29.com"/>
*Getty drove his own car to work every day.

Author [[John Pearson (author)|John Pearson]] attributed part of Getty's extreme penny-pinching to the [[Methodist]] sensibility of his upbringing, which emphasized modest living and personal economy. His business acumen was also a major factor in Getty's thriftiness. "He would allow himself no self-indulgence in the purchase of a place to live, a work of art, even a piece of furniture, unless he could convince himself that it would appreciate in value."<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=42}} Getty claimed his frugality toward others was a response to having been taken advantage of. "It's not the money I object to, it's the principle of the thing that bothers me", he said.<ref name="NYTobit"/>

===Coin-box telephone===
Getty famously had a pay phone installed at Sutton Place, helping to seal his reputation as a miser.<ref>{{cite news|first=Julie|last=Miller|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/12/all-the-money-in-the-world-j-paul-getty|title=The Enigma of J. Paul Getty, the One-Time Richest Man in the World|work=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]|location=New York City|date=December 22, 2017|access-date=March 30, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180427223640/https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/12/all-the-money-in-the-world-j-paul-getty|archive-date=April 27, 2018}}</ref> He placed dial locks on all the regular telephones, limiting their use to authorized staff, and the coin-box telephone was installed for others. In his autobiography, he described his reasons:

{{blockquote|Now, for months after Sutton Place was purchased, great numbers of people came in and out of the house. Some were visiting businessmen. Others were artisans or workmen engaged in renovation and refurbishing. Still others were tradesmen making deliveries of merchandise. Suddenly, the Sutton Place telephone bills began to soar. The reason was obvious. Each of the regular telephones in the house has direct access to outside lines and thus to long-distance and even overseas operators. All sorts of people were making the best of a rare opportunity. They were picking up Sutton Place phones and placing calls to girlfriends in Geneva or Georgia and to aunts, uncles and third cousins twice-removed in Caracas and Cape Town. The costs of their friendly chats were, of course, charged to the Sutton Place bill.<ref>Getty, 1976, pg.319</ref>}}

In a 1963 televised interview with [[Alan Whicker]],<ref>{{cite web|title=The Solitary Billionaire J. Paul Getty|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00nw1t5|work=Talk at the BBC|access-date=April 6, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319212359/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00nw1t5|archive-date=March 19, 2012}}</ref> Getty said that he thought guests would want to use a pay phone.<ref>''Talk at the BBC'', BBC Four, April 5, 2012</ref> After 18 months, he said, "the in-and-out traffic flow at Sutton subsided. Management and operation of the house settled into a reasonable routine. With that, the pay telephone [was] removed, and the dial locks were taken off the telephones in the house."<ref>Getty, 1976, p. 320</ref>

==Later years and death==
On June 30, 1960, Getty threw a 21st birthday party for a relative of his friend, the [[Bernard Fitzalan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk|16th Duke of Norfolk]], which served as a housewarming party for the newly purchased Sutton Place.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=119}} Partygoers were irritated by Getty's stinginess, such as not providing cigarettes and relegating everyone to using [[creosote]] [[portable toilet]]s outside. At about 10 p.m. the party descended into pandemonium as party crashers arrived from London, swelling the already overcrowded halls and causing an estimated £20,000 in damage.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=119}} A valuable silver ewer by the 18th century silversmith [[Paul de Lamerie]] was stolen, but returned anonymously when the London newspapers began covering the theft.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-wild-was-j-paul-gettys-notorious-british-party| title=How Wild Was J. Paul Getty's Notorious British Party?| author=Anthony Haden-Guest| work=The Daily Beast| date=September 27, 2015| access-date=March 30, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920162644/http://www.thedailybeast.com/how-wild-was-j-paul-gettys-notorious-british-party| archive-date=September 20, 2017| df=mdy-all}}</ref> The event's failure made Getty the object of ridicule and he never threw another large party. He remained an inveterate hard worker, boasting at age 74 that he often worked 16 to 18 hours per day overseeing his operations across the world.<ref name="NYTobit" /> The value of Getty Oil shares quadrupled during the Arab-Israeli [[Yom Kippur War]] of 1973, which caused a worldwide oil shortage for years. Getty's earnings topped $25.8&nbsp;million in 1975.<ref name="Pearson1995" />{{rp|page=199}}

Getty met the English interior designer Penelope Kitson in the 1950s and entrusted her with decorating his homes and the public rooms of the oil tankers he was launching. From 1960, Kitson resided in a cottage on the grounds of Sutton Place. Getty and Kitson maintained a platonic relationship and Getty held her in high respect and trust.

Getty's insatiable appetite for sex also continued into his 80s. He used an experimental drug, ''H3'', to maintain his potency.<ref name="vanityfair.com"/> Mistresses who resided at Sutton Place included [[Mary Teissier]], a distant cousin of the last [[Tsar of Russia]]; [[Lady Ursula d'Abo]], who had close connections to the British Royal Family; and Nicaraguan-born Rosabella Burch.<ref name="vanityfair.com"/> ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote of Getty's domestic arrangement saying that he "ended his life with a collection of desperately hopeful women, all living together in his Tudor mansion in England, none of them aware that his favorite pastime was rewriting his will, changing his insultingly small bequests: $209 a month to one, $1,167 to another."<ref>{{cite news|first=Jane|last=O'Reilly|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/30/books/isn-t-it-funny-what-money-can-do.html|title=Isn't It Funny What Money Can Do?|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=March 30, 1986|access-date=March 29, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330211214/https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/30/books/isn-t-it-funny-what-money-can-do.html|archive-date=March 30, 2018}}</ref> Only Kitson received a significant bequest upon Getty's death: 5,000 shares of Getty Oil, which doubled in value during the 1980s, and a $1,167 monthly income.<ref name="vanityfair.com" />

On June 6, 1976, Getty died of heart failure at age 83 in Sutton Place.<ref name=NYTobit/>

==Media portrayals==
[[Rudy De Luca]] portrayed Getty in the 1991 [[Mel Brooks]] film ''[[Life Stinks]]'', in which Brooks plays a real estate tycoon who takes a bet that he can't live in the streets as a derelict for a month. Several times in the film he runs into a homeless man who claims to be Getty in a similar situation, but neither believes the other. It is never confirmed whether this character was supposed to actually be Getty or just a homeless person with a personality disorder, but he is credited as "J. Paul Getty".

[[Christopher Plummer]] portrayed Getty in the 2017 film ''[[All the Money in the World]],'' which dramatizes his grandson's kidnapping. Getty was originally portrayed by [[Kevin Spacey]], but after sexual misconduct allegations surfaced against Spacey before the film premiered, Plummer refilmed Spacey's scenes. For his performance, Plummer received an [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] nomination for [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|Best Supporting Actor]]. The kidnapping is dramatized in the first season of the American anthology drama series ''[[Trust (U.S. TV series)|Trust]]'', in which [[Donald Sutherland]] portrays Getty.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Petski|first1=Denise|title=FX Sets 'Atlanta' & 'The Americans' Return Dates, 'Trust' Premiere – TCA|url=https://deadline.com/2018/01/fx-atlanta-the-americans-trust-premiere-dates-1202236211/|publisher=[[Deadline Hollywood]]|access-date=January 5, 2018|date=January 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180106065129/http://deadline.com/2018/01/fx-atlanta-the-americans-trust-premiere-dates-1202236211/|archive-date=January 6, 2018}}</ref>

==Quotations==
J. Paul Getty has one entry in the eighth edition of [[The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations]]: "If you can actually count your money, then you are not really a rich man."<ref>[[The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations]]. 8th Edition. Page 340</ref><ref>[[The Observer]] November 3, 1957</ref>

==Published works==
* Getty, J. Paul. ''The history of the bigger oil business of George F.S. F. and J. Paul Getty from 1903 to 1939''. Los Angeles?, 1941, {{OCLC|693373380}}
* Getty, J. Paul. ''Europe in the Eighteenth Century''. [Santa Monica, Calif.]: privately printed, 1949, {{OCLC|1539420}}
* Le Vane, Ethel, and J. Paul Getty. ''Collector's Choice: The Chronicle of an Artistic Odyssey through Europe''. London: W.H. Allen, 1955, {{OCLC|901152222}}
* Getty, J. Paul. ''My Life and Fortunes''. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1963, {{OCLC|804426417}}
* Getty, J. Paul. ''The Joys of Collecting''. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1965, {{OCLC|756465638}}
* Getty, J. Paul. ''How to be Rich''. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1965, {{OCLC|702557306}}
* Getty, J. Paul. ''The Golden Age''. New York: Trident Press, 1968, {{OCLC|3039906}}
* Getty, J. Paul. ''How to be a Successful Executive''. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1971, {{OCLC|11409794}}
* Getty, J. Paul. ''As I See It: The Autobiography of J. Paul Getty''. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1976. {{ISBN|0-13-049593-X}}, {{OCLC|1078950701}}
{{clear}}

==See also==
* [[List of richest Americans in history]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Hewins, Ralph. ''The Richest American: J. Paul Getty''. New York: Dutton, 1960.
* Lund, Robina. ''The Getty I Knew''. Kansas City: Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1977. {{ISBN|0-8362-6601-3}}.
* Miller, Russell. ''The House of Getty''. New York: Henry Holt, 1985. {{ISBN|0-8050-0023-2}}.
* [[Somerset de Chair|de Chair, Somerset Struben]]. ''Getty on Getty: a man in a billion''. London: Cassell, 1989. {{ISBN|0-304-31807-8}}.
* Pearson, John. ''Painfully Rich: J. Paul Getty and His Heirs''. London: Macmillan, 1995. {{ISBN|0-333-59033-3}}.
* Wooster, Martin Morse. ''Philanthropy Hall of Fame, J. Paul Getty''. [http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/hall_of_fame/j._paul_getty philanthropyroundtable.org.]

==External links==
{{Sister project links |wikt=no |commons=J. Paul Getty |commonscat=yes |n=no |q=J._Paul_Getty |d=Q318591 |s=no |b=no |v=no}}
*[http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifaia40009 J. Paul Getty diaries, 1938–1946, 1948–1976] finding aid, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. 
*[http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifaia20009 J. Paul Getty family collected papers, 1880s–1989, undated (bulk 1911–1977)] finding aid, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. 
*[[hdl:10020/cifaia20013|J. Paul Getty and Ashby sisters papers, 1926-1992]], finding aid, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.
*{{Find a Grave|6730}}

{{Getty Trust}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Getty, J. Paul}}
[[Category:1892 births]]
[[Category:1976 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford]]
[[Category:American art collectors]]
[[Category:American autobiographers]]
[[Category:American business writers]]
[[Category:American businesspeople in the oil industry]]
[[Category:American billionaires]]
[[Category:American emigrants to England]]
[[Category:American industrialists]]
[[Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Minneapolis]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Tulsa, Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:English people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:Museum founders]]
[[Category:Getty family|J. Paul]]
[[Category:J. Paul Getty Trust|J]]
[[Category:John H. Francis Polytechnic High School alumni]]
[[Category:People associated with the J. Paul Getty Museum| ]]
[[Category:Philanthropists from California]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni]]