Paul Getty
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sir John Paul Getty KBE (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 at the time — and 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 Paul Getty, John Paul Getty and Jean Paul Getty, Jr.
His father expected him to prove himself: his first job was pumping gas for $100 a month. He attended Saint Ignatius High School and the University of San Francisco, but he did not graduate from college. He was drafted into the U.S. Army to serve in Korea.
From 1966 until her premature death from drugs in 1971, he was married to the actress, model and style icon Talitha Pol. He became a British Citizen in 1997.
[edit] Personal problems
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 US$17 million ransom demand, and his father refused to help, saying "I have 14 other grandchildren, 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. Paul III later took a mixture of prescription drugs which left him comatose for six weeks and left him paralysed and blind.
In 1976, Paul Getty's father died, but had essentially written his son out of his will, leaving him $500. Getty'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 was married to Elizabeth Taylor's son, Christopher Wilding. Elizabeth Taylor attributes her AIDS activism to Aileen's contraction of AIDS. Aileen recently married Bartolomeo Ruspoli, son of the late European playboy Dado Ruspoli.
Over the next decade Getty suffered from depression and, in 1984 in a final attempt to end his drug addiction, checked himself into a London clinic. While there he received a visit from the prime minister Margaret Thatcher to thank him for his donation to the National Gallery. She reportedly helped speed his recovery by telling him, "My dear Mr. Getty, we mustn't let things get us down, must we? We'll have you out of here as soon as possible."
[edit] Philanthropy
Getty gave over £140m to the cause of culture. The National Gallery alone received £50m from him. He was awarded a KBE in 1987, but as a foreign national could not use the title "Sir". In December 1997 he was granted British citizenship and immediately renounced his US nationality. 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 after being introduced to the sport by Mick Jagger. He even built a cricket ground at Wormsley Park, his 2,500 acre (10 km²) Buckinghamshire estate. He became President of Surrey County Cricket Club for one year, and gave money to Lord's Cricket Ground to build a new stand. He combined his loves of cricket and books when he purchased the ownership of Wisden, the famous publishers of the cricketing almanack. Getty built an extraordinary library at Wormsley, 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. He was a notable member of the exclusive Roxburghe Club, famous amongst book collectors.
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, St Paul's Cathedral and the Imperial War Museum. Some of his donations, especially a contribution towards the purchases of Canova's The Three Graces by The National Galleries of Scotland and the Madonna of the Pinks by Raphael, foiled acquisition efforts by The Getty Foundation endowed by his father. In June 2001, he gave £5 million to the Conservative Party. Getty also endowed a charitable trust that supports projects that promote the arts, conservation and social welfare.
He died in the London Clinic, after being admitted for treatment for a recurrent chest infection.
