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 J. Paul  Getty Museum 
17985 Pacific Coast Highway. Malibu.
Tel: (310) 458-2003

John Paul Getty  December 15th 1892 - June 6th 1976
Reputed to be the richest man in the world at the time of his death.
John P Getty's grave in the gardens at the Getty Museum Malibu.

 

Jean Paul Getty  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 from Magdalen College, 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. Although he eventually returned to business, Getty had lost his father's respect. Just before George Franklin Getty died in 1930, 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.
Getty married five times: to Jeanette Dumont (1923–25), Allene Ashby (1926–28), Adolphine Helmle (1928–32), Ann Rork (1932–35), and Theodora "Teddy" Lynch. He had five sons: George Franklin Getty (d. 1973) by his first wife, Jean Ronald Getty by his third wife, John Paul Getty and Gordon Getty by his fourth wife, and Timothy Getty (died aged 12) by his fifth wife.