John Gilbert Getty, 52, heir to Getty fortune dies in Texas hotel room (2024)

John Gilbert Getty, a grandson of billionaire oil tycoon J. Paul Getty and heir to the estimated $5billion family fortune, has died at the age of 52 in the latest in a long line of tragedies to befall the family.

The Getty family confirmed the heir's death on Monday night after he was found unresponsive in a hotel room in San Antonio, Texason Friday, and paid tribute to an 'awesome' father and musician who leaves behind a daughter and two brothers.

The nature of his death is not yet clear, with an autopsy yet to take place, but foul play is not suspected.

'With a heavy heart, Gordon Getty announces the death of his son, John Gilbert Getty,' said a spokesperson for his composer father.

'John leaves behind his daughter, Ivy Getty, whom he loved beyond measure, and his brothers Peter and Billy. His brother, Andrew, predeceased John. John's mother, Ann Gilbert Getty, passed this September.

'John was a talented musician who loved rock and roll. He will be deeply missed.'

It comes nearly six years after John's brother Andrew died of a hemorrhage in 2015 with a toxic level of methamphetamine in his system, and only two months after the death of their mother Ann, who died from a heart attack at age 79.

John was also the cousin of tragic heir J. Paul Getty III, who was sensationally kidnapped for ransom as a teenager in 1973 and who later suffered a debilitating stroke and died aged 54 nine years ago.

John was one of seven children born to Gordon Getty, once the sole benefactor of the Getty family's $5.4billion fortune before he split it up into six separate trusts in 1985.

Gordon, 86, is the only surviving child of five sons born to the oil tycoon, and is among his many heirs which include several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Ivy Getty, John's 25-year-old daughter, shared a moving tribute on social media over the weekend, coupled with a number of photos where she is pictured with her father.

'My father was awesome- coolest man to ever land on this planet and I will forever be the proudest daughter,' she wrote.

'Love you so much Dad....life is cruel sometimes.... I have not one, but two guardian angels watching over me now...here are some of my favorite pictures of him (and selfishly a couple of us).'

Ivy continued to memorialize her father in a series of Instagram stories on Monday.

She shared numerous photos interspersed with fun facts about her father. She wrote: 'My dad would absolutely love if I shared photos of him and talked about how much he meant to me so I am doing that.'

Getty noted that Fiji water was her dad's favorite water, Whispering Angel was his favorite rosé and that 'he loved ice cream and putting it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before consumption. He wanted to eat it (or really drink it like a soup).'

Ivy told how her father split his time between London and Los Angeles and praised his guitar skills.

She wrote: 'He was an absolute beast at any instrument but his favorite was guitar. He held all the chords totally different that anyone else because he taught himself.'

She also spoke of how 'proud' she was to be the only 'consistent' woman in her father's life as she reflected on her his womanizing ways.

'I don't think there was a single girlfriend he had that I wasn't a complete b***h to. I liked being his only child and it felt like it was just us two,' she wrote.

'He was quite the heartbreaker and I remember I used to get flooded by Facebook messages from random women trying to contact me to reach my father lol.'

Ivy was born in 1994 to Getty and mother Alyssa Jewels, who she described as 'the only woman I would want my father to be with.'

'There was literally no way my parents would ever get back together lol - but they always were sweet and I never had to deal with them fighting with each other,' she added.

Other members of the Getty family also posted their condolences underneath Ivy's posts.

August Getty, son of Ariadne Getty, the granddaughter of the late family patriarch, wrote: 'Two beautiful angels, I love you so much.'

August's sister Nats Getty wrote: 'Love you Ivy.'

Why John was in a San Antonio hotel room at the time of his death is unclear.

In 2018, the LA Times reported that he had bought a $3.9million Hollywood Hills home in California.

Although there are no signs of foul play in his death, it is the latest episode in a long line of tragedies which have led some to speak of a 'Getty curse'.

While the heirs of the oil tycoon have managed to maintain a significant share of the family fortune, the money has not shielded subsequent generations from drug addiction, premature death, tabloid scandal and violent attacks.

In March 2015, John's brother Andrew Getty was found dead by his girlfriend at a Hollywood Hills mansion, aged 47.

Los Angeles medical examiners said he died of an accidental gastrointestinal hemorrhage and also had a toxic level of methamphetamine in his system.

Following his death, his father Gordon filed a creditor's claim for $14.1million because he given his son more than $10million in loans from the family fortune.

He also requested back 55 pieces of art that he had loaned to his son, and repayment for some of his son's expenses, TMZ reported at the time.

John and Andrew's father, Gordon lost his brother Timmy to a brain tumor as a child and another to a suspected suicide, while sister-in-law Talitha Pol died from a heroin overdose.

Pol, a Dutch actress and 'Bohemian beauty' with her own jet-setting background, married J. Paul Getty Jr in 1966 but was estranged from him by the time of their death.

Getty Jr, later known as Sir Paul Getty after receiving an honorary knighthood in Britain, was a philanthropist and cricket fan who died in 2003.

In 1973, another of the tycoon's grandsons, J. Paul Getty III, was kidnapped by Italian gangsters in Rome and held to a ransom which Getty Sr initially refused to pay.

'I have 14 grandchildren and if I pay one penny ransom, I'll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren,' he said.

However, he is eventually thought to have coughed up around $3million after the kidnappers cut off the teenager's ear and threatened to return him piece by piece.

The episode was made into a 2017 movie,All the Money in the World, which later drew attention because Kevin Spacey was hurriedly edited out after sexual misconduct allegations.

In subsequent years, Getty III began using drugs including cocaine and heroin and in 1981 suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed and nearly blind. He died in 2011.

Gordon Getty, the father of John and Andrew and five other adult children - including three with mistress Cynthia Beck - is a classical musician and philanthropist who facilitated the sale of his father's business, Getty Oil, after the billionaire died in 1976.

In 1995 he founded a winery called PlumpJack with now-California governor Gavin Newsom, according to People.

Gordon, whose net worth is estimated byForbesat $2.1billion,married Ann Gilbert in 1964 and Andrew and John were two of their four children.

However, in 1999 it emerged that he had a second family in Los Angeles that included three daughters, who had filed court papers to change their last names to Getty.

Getty Sr's youngest child, Timothy Ware Getty, suffered a brain tumor aged six and died at the age of 12 in 1958.

The oil baron's then-wife Teddy, a former nightclub singer, later wrote in a memoir that the tycoon had admonished her over the boy's expensive medical bills.

They divorced soon after Timothy's death, but Teddy lived until 2017 when she died aged 103.

Another of Getty's sons, George, died in a suspected suicide in 1973.

At one time the richest person in the world, Getty Sr was married five times and had his five sons by four of his wives.

Getty became one of the financial giants of the 20th century after he took over his father’s oil business and built it into Getty Oil, a multinational conglomerate with holdings all over the world.

A prominent art collector, he bequeathed much of his personal fortune to the Getty Museum with its sprawling campus on a Los Angeles mountaintop.