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Andrew Getty, grandson of Getty Oil founder, found dead Andrew Getty, grandson of Getty Oil founder, found dead
(about 4 hours later)
Andrew Getty, the grandson of Getty Oil founder J Paul Getty, has been found dead at his home in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. The grandson of billionaire Getty oil founder J Paul Getty was found dead on Tuesday afternoon at his home in Los Angeles, the family said in a statement.
A woman called to report that someone had died and officers went to the gated home on Montcalm Avenue shortly after 2.15pm on Tuesday. They found the body in a bathroom, police spokesman Jack Richter said. Andrew Getty’s parents, Ann and Gordon, confirmed the 47-year-old’s death and requested privacy for the family during “this extremely difficult time”, adding that further details would be released as they became available.
Police did not identify the man but a statement from Andrew Getty’s parents, Ann and Gordon Getty, confirmed it was him. The cause of death was not released. Los Angeles police department spokesman Commander Andrew Smith said it was very early in the investigation and witnesses were being questioned, but no one was in custody.
Police Commander Andrew Smith said the woman who had called police was co-operating with the investigation. Richter said she was not arrested and he did not know her identity. She was named in some reports as an ex-girlfriend. “At first glance, it does not appear to be a criminal type of act. But that could change,” Smith said on Tuesday night.
Andrew Getty’s grandfather J Paul Getty was an industrialist who founded the Getty Oil Co and was at one point named the richest living American by Fortune magazine. He had five sons and died in 1976 at age 82. The death appeared to be either accidental or natural, Los Angeles county coroner’s office spokesman Ed Winter told reporters in a news conference broadcast by TV station KTLA 5.
J Paul Getty was an avid collector of art and antiquities, and the Getty name is best known in the Los Angeles area for the museum that houses much of it, along with many other high-priced artworks bought since his death. “He had some medication that we recovered and don’t know if he had taken the medication or what his medical history is, we do have a doctor’s name that we’re also going to follow up,” Winter said.
Another Getty grandson, J Paul Getty III, lost an ear in a kidnapping in Rome when he was a teenager. The family reportedly stalled on paying a ransom and the kidnappers cut off part of his ear, sending it to a newspaper to prove they had taken him captive.
The oil heir, then 16, was freed after five months in captivity and a payment of US$2.7m. He died in 2011 at age 54. He appeared to have suffered blunt force trauma, though the cause was unclear, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing an anonymous law enforcement official.
Andrew Getty’s father is Gordon Getty, a San Francisco multibillionaire who is among the richest men in the United States. Police blocked off the street outside the home with yellow crime-scene tape as more than a dozen news crews and photographers gathered.
The family statement provided no further details on the death, requested privacy and said further statements would be issued when information became available. Getty’s grandfather, J Paul Getty, merged several smaller oil companies into Getty Oil in the 1960s.
Coroner’s vans and news trucks were parked outside the century-old luxury home on one of the winding roads in the hills that are home to many of the film industry’s rich set. At one time one of America’s richest men, he was also an avid art collector who established the trust that funds the J Paul Getty Museum and several other institutions.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report