Gordon Getty was born on December 20, 1933 in Los Angeles. He was the fourth child of J Paul Getty, founder of Getty Oil and the richest private citizen in the United States during his lifetime. 

When Gordon’s mother divorced J Paul Getty in 1940, she and Gordon moved to San Francisco. Gordon attended St Ignatius High School and the University of San Francisco before earning a BA from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He had intended to pursue a career in music but was pressured instead to join the family business. Gordon married Ann Gilbert in Las Vegas in 1964. They settled in San Francisco, eventually moving into 2900 Vallejo in Pacific Heights. In 2019 this house was sold for $27 million. 

When J Paul Getty died in 1976, with an estate estimated to be worth 2.1 billion, Gordon, as the only surviving son, assumed control of the Getty Trust. He continued to run Getty Oil (until 1986 when he sold the company to Texaco) while simultaneously pursuing a music career. He wanted to be an opera singer, but eventually turned his attention to composing. His work Plump Jack was performed by the San Francisco Symphony in 1985. His one-act opera Usher House was performed by the San Francisco Opera in 2015^[1].

In 1999 Getty publicly acknowledged that he had two families: his wife Ann and their four sons in San Francisco, and his mistress and their three daughters in Los Angeles.  The story broke when his daughters, aged 14, 10 and 8, filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court to legally change their names to Getty. Ann and Getty’s sons learned about this second family two months before the story broke. Despite the scandal, Gordon and Ann Getty never divorced. 

The Gettys were benefactors of numerous San Francisco arts and educational charities, and they opened their home to numerous fundraisers. Anne died in 2020, and two of their three sons are deceased. Getty is still alive.

^[1] Visit his website at www.gordongetty.com