J Paul Getty III, the troubled grandson of the US multibillionaire oil magnate who once lost an ear in a grisly kidnapping, has died aged 54.
His son, actor Balthazar Getty, confirmed today that his father died Saturday surrounded by his family at his mansion in Buckinghamshire. The cause of death was not disclosed.
Born into vast wealth, J. Paul Getty III became known worldwide when he was kidnapped in Rome in 1973. When the family reportedly stalled on paying a ransom, the kidnappers cut off part of his ear, sending it to an Italian newspaper to prove they had taken him captive.
The oil heir, then 16, was freed after five months in captivity and a payment of $2.7 million (€1.97 million) He later suffered a stroke while undergoing treatment for alcohol abuse in 1981. It left him paralysed, unable to speak, in a wheelchair and in need of around-the-clock care.
The father of two and grandfather of six “never let his handicap keep him from living life to the fullest and he was an inspiration to all of us, showing us how to stand up to all adversity,” Balthazar Getty said in a statement issued by his publicist. “We will miss him terribly.”
In some ways, the elder Getty’s life captured the turmoil of his time. As the grandson of the late US oil billionaire, J. Paul Getty III was used as a pawn when he was kidnapped for ransom while a young man.
Once he was freed, he embraced the hippie counterculture of the late 1960s and 1970s, throwing himself into a life of drugs and parties. He married Gisella Getty and they had Balthazar.
Pictures from that era show J. Paul Getty III looking like a young rock star, with tight blue jeans and ringlets of hair cascading to his shoulders. Although he made few public pronouncements, the fact that a grandson of one of the world’s richest oilmen had apparently embraced the anti-war flower power ethos did not go unnoticed.
The Getty family history, however, is riddled with drug-related woes: J. Paul III’s father struggled with a well-publicised drug addition, and his stepmother died from a drug overdose.
J. Paul III was rarely seen in the public eye after the stroke, drifting from public consciousness even as his family name became associated with philanthropy and the arts.
The troubled family rose to global prominence with the phenomenal success of his grandfather, the late J. Paul Getty, who built Getty Oil into a $6 billion fortune - making him the world’s richest man in his day.
The oilman was known for his tight-fisted approach, reportedly installing a pay telephone in one of his homes so that family and friends would not be able to place long distance calls at his expense.
He also built one of the world’s great art collections, which formed the basis of the J. Paul Getty Museum - a cultural centrepiece in the Los Angeles area.
AP