Sir Paul Getty, known widely as John Paul Getty Jr., was a British philanthropist and book collector. He was the third of five sons born to J. Paul Getty (1892–1976), one of the richest men in the world at the time. His mother was J. Paul Getty's fourth wife, Ann Rork. The Getty family's wealth was the result of the oil business founded by George Franklin Getty. One of his sons, Mark Getty, co-founded the visual media company Getty Images.

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.