Jean Paul Getty Sr. was an American-born British petroleum industrialist who founded the Getty Oil Company in 1942 and was the patriarch of the Getty family. A native of Minneapolis, he was the son of pioneer oilman George Getty. In 1957, Fortune magazine named him the wealthiest living American, while the 1966 Guinness Book of Records declared him the world's wealthiest private citizen, worth an estimated $1.2 billion. At the time of his death, he was worth more than $6 billion. A book published in 1996 ranked him as the 67th wealthiest American who ever lived.

Getty Oil Company was an American oil marketing company with its origins as part of the large integrated oil company founded by J. Paul Getty.