The name Getty has been in and out of the media for years. It was most recently in the media when television actor Balthazar Getty started seeing Sienna Miller behind his wife's back. Sienna has a habit of doing that sort of thing. It's how she's slept herself into and then out of a major motion picture career. Anyway bats was well known apart from his TV work and risking catching social diseases with Sienna. He was the great grandson of legendary oil tycoon J Paul Getty. His grandfather was JP 2, and his father was John Paul Getty 3 - that Getty.John Paul Getty 3's life was lived in the public eye since the day he was born - Nov 4 1956. He made an immedaite impession on his grandfather who described him as a "a bright, red-haired little rascal… most cheerful and cute", but things would go down hill from there. A childhood spent in Rome - where his father headed a division of the family business - didn't do much for the lad. It seemed to lead him down the wrong. It was in Rome, in 1964, that hias father divorced his mother - Gail Harris, and took up with Talitha Pol, step grand daughter to Augustus John (artist).
JP3 never got it together after that. He drifted into a Bohemian lifestyle of booze, drugs and bad company. He supported himself painting and nude modeling. He also got himself kidnapped. In 1973, when he was 16, JP3 was taken from his apartment at 3 AM by men who would later demand a ransom for the oil heir's release. That's were things got really sticky.
J Paul 1 - balked at paying the 3 million dollar ransom. His official story was that he had 14 grand kids, and if he paid off on this, he'd have 14 kid napped grandchildren. Now that sounds more tough than fair. People who knew the old man observed that he also balked at paying tips on meals. He once left his pocket change on the table after being nagged about it by a dinner companion. That came to the princely sum of under $1.
The kid nappers weren't to be as easily handled as service personnel. Employees of Italian newspaper Il Messagero received a package containing human hair and a decaying ear. The note claimed that the ear belonged to Getty, and if they weren't paid promptly, more odds and ends would be arriving by post. The old man reconsidered and decided to pay off the ransom. However in typical Getty style he made the payment in the form of a loan to his son, at 4% interest!
The payoff worked and Getty 3 was released. He showed up on the road between Rome and Naples wearing a blanket and covered in blood. He was also malnourished, badly infected, and generally in desperate shape. He'd gotten infected after the ear had come off, and his captors had tried to keep him alive with massive doses of penicillin. Not only did it not cure the infection, but triggered an allergy. His captors had also used alcohol, perhaps to prevent him from cracking up; and he developed an addiction to it.
Thew hole ordeal further deepened rifts within the Getty clan. While JP3 went off to a clinic and then skiing - to recover, his mother spiraled into a depression. When JP3 phoned his grand father - to thank him for paying off, the old man refused to accept the call (maybe it was collect?). With mom in bad shape and C Monty Burns giving hm the silent treatment, JP3 drifted into a deeper relationship with his girlfriend 24 year old actress Martine Zacher. She was 6 years senior to the 18 year old, and also 5 months pregnant by the time the married. The ceremony was something to behold: the bride wore black and Getty was so messed up that the official performing the ceremony questioned whether or not Getty actually knew what was going on. Incidentally the child Zacher was 5 months pregnant with at the time was Balthazar Getty.
BY the time the 70's rolled 'round JP3 was in bad shape. he was now drug addicted, paranoid, and unable to sleep. If he was expecting family support then he would be disappointed again. In 1976 the old man died and left a $4 billion fortune. JP3,a nd his father, were cut out in the will. however a dozen of JP1's female friends - who provided care and support for the old geezer in his declining years - were handsomely rewarded. However JP3 was a beneficiary of the Sarah C Getty Trust (trust funds are what the uber rich set up when they finally figure out that too much money will fuck up their kids). It was fortunate for Getty - if anything in his life could be called fortunate - that he had the family trust to fall back on; since his health was about to take a major crash!
In 77 Getty underwent surgery to repair the damage from his ear amputation. That wasn't the last of his health problems. His body was in rough shape from alcohol & drug abuse, the lad was found of herion and cocaine, in addition to brandy. So in 81 he had a major liver failure. That triggered a stroke, which lead to 6 weeks in coma. When he awoke, he was blind, mute, and paralyzed. It was beginning to look like the only thing he'd inherited from his grandfather was all the trouble that money could buy (which is often plenty!).
Getty showed that he'd inherited something else from the old man - will power. Getty submitted to a cruel therapy & rehabilitation regime, which involved daily painful physio. He made some measure of recovery and by the late 80's was able to get out an about again. In fact he was sometimes seen at the movies, and other social events. he even made one foray back onto the slopes. his health was that fully recovered though, and he could only ski while strapped into a metal frame.
Health was to remain the issue through out the remainder of his life. His home had been converted into something his friend Timothy Leary described as a high tech hospital ward. Behind the wall panels in Getty's home were the most advanced medical equipment available at the time, just in case they ever came in handy. Apparently with the push of a button walls would flip, and the tech would emerge, like a scene from a James Bond film. Some of the lifestyle accouterments concealed behind the oak paneling included lasers, X-ray machines and even a private blood bank.Despite his efforts JP3 never did escape the wheel chair. That left him mostly confined to his family estate in Buckinghamshire, Chilterns. The family home, named Wormsley, was on 3000 acres, and had been designed like a theme park version of an aristocratic manor home. There was a cricket pitch, mock castle, towers, and everything except a moat and draw bridge. It also contained one of the best collections of rare books. On a practical note it had been completely wheel chair adapted. It was on the Wormley estate that John Paul Getty 3 died Tuesday. He was 54.
