John Paul Getty Jr.

He was the third of five sons born to J. Paul Getty (1892–1976), one of the richest men in the world at the time.

His mother was J. Paul Getty's fourth wife, Ann Rork.

The Getty family's wealth was the result of the oil business founded by George Franklin Getty.

One of his sons, Mark Getty, co-founded the visual media company Getty Images.

At birth, he was given the name Eugene Paul Getty, but in later life, he adopted other names, including Paul Getty, John Paul Getty, Jean Paul Getty Jr. and John Paul Getty II.

Sir Paul Getty (born Eugene Paul Getty; 7 September 1932 – 17 April 2003), known widely as John Paul Getty Jr., was a British philanthropist and book collector.

John Paul Jr.. was born on board ship in the waters near Genoa, Italy, on 7 September 1932, while his parents Ann and J. Paul Getty were travelling.

His birth was registered at La Spezia with the name Eugenio Paul Getty, when the Italian notary misheard the name John.

Ann Getty divorced J. Paul Getty Sr. in 1936 in Reno, Nevada, claiming emotional cruelty and neglect.

She was awarded $1,000 per month in child support for each of her sons, Paul Jr. and Gordon.

In 1938, Ann married her third husband, Joseph Stanton McInerney, and the family moved to San Francisco.

Paul Jr. attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory and the University of San Francisco, both Jesuit schools.

Throughout his adolescence, he showed a great interest in reading and music, encouraged by his mother.

In 1950 he was drafted to serve in the Korean War, spending the duration working at the American headquarters in Seoul, South Korea.

After he was discharged he met Abigail Harris, the daughter of a prominent San Franciscan federal judge, and the two were married in early 1956.

His first child, John Paul Getty III was born in November 1956.

The following year he approached his brother Gordon, vice-president of the Getty subsidiary Tidewater Petroleum, asking for a job.

His brother gave him a job pumping gas at a Tidewater gas station in Marin County.

After a year, his father, whom he had not seen in 12 years, was favourably impressed enough to invite his family and him to Paris, where he offered Paul Jr. a job as president of Getty Oil's Italian subsidiary, Getty Oil Italiana, in Rome.

His first marriage was to Abigail "Gail" Harris, a former water polo champion.

He would legally alter his name with the Italian authorities to John Paul in 1958.

He was initially raised in Los Angeles, California, United States.

His parents' marriage was troubled by J. Paul's long absences abroad and his emotional distance.

They divorced in 1964, having had four children: John Paul Getty III, Mark Getty, Ariadne Getty and Aileen Getty.

His second marriage was to the Dutch actress, model and style icon Talitha Pol, stepdaughter of painter Augustus John's daughter Poppet, on 10 December 1966.

After he married Talitha in 1966, the couple became immersed in the counterculture of the 1960s, living between Rome, Italy, and Marrakesh, Morocco.

During a trip to Thailand, the couple developed serious heroin addictions.

She was survived by her son with Getty, Tara Gabriel Gramophone Galaxy Getty (born June 1968), an ecological conservationist in Africa.

Tara attended Milton Abbey School in the village of Milton Abbas, near the market town of Blandford Forum in Dorset in South West England.

The two posed for an iconic photograph on a rooftop in Marrakesh, Morocco, in January 1969.

The photo, taken by Patrick Lichfield, shows Talitha Getty crouched down leaning on a wall and her husband in the background in a hooded djellaba and sunglasses.

Two and a half years after the photo was taken, Talitha died of a heroin overdose on 11 July 1971.

In 1973, his son John Paul Getty III was held captive in Italy, as J. Paul Getty refused to pay a ransom.

In 1986, he was awarded an honorary knighthood for services to causes ranging from cricket, to art and to the Conservative Party.

His honorary knighthood would eventually become substantive upon the required acquisition of British citizenship.

In 1994, he married for the third time to Victoria Holdsworth.

A long-time Anglophile, he became a British citizen in 1997.

In 1998, he changed his name by deed poll when he renounced the first name Eugene and wished to be known as Sir Paul Getty KBE.

The photo appeared in American Vogue and again in the September 1999 issue of American Vogue and is part of the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.

His daughter, Aileen Getty, is an AIDS activist formerly married to Elizabeth Taylor's son Christopher Wilding; married since 2005 to Bartolomeo Ruspoli (b 1978), son of Prince Alessandro Ruspoli.