Gordon Peter Getty (born December 20, 1933) is an American businessman and classical music composer, the fourth child of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. His mother, Ann Rork, was his father's fourth wife. When his father died in 1976, Gordon assumed control of Getty's $2 billion trust. In March 2026, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated his wealth as $8.15 billion and placed him at number 463 on their list of billionaires worldwide, while the Forbes 400 estimated it at $5.5 billion, making him number 276 on their list of the wealthiest Americans.
Getty was raised in San Francisco, California, where he attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory and the University of San Francisco. He also earned a B.A. in music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He studied singing with Verna Osborne.
He joined the oil business to please his father; however, he eventually sold the family's Getty Oil to Texaco in 1986 for about $10 billion.
In 2002, Getty founded ReFlow, a company which temporarily purchases shares in mutual funds to save funds taxes and commissions.
Among several professions, Getty is a classical music composer whose compositions include the opera Plump Jack, Joan and the Bells, piano pieces, and a collection of choral works. His one-act opera Usher House was performed by the San Francisco Opera in 2015. Aspiring to become an opera singer, Getty studied in the mid-1970s with Louise Caselotti, a mezzo-soprano who had been Maria Callas' voice teacher (1946âÂÂ47). He and his wife have supported the fine arts, especially underwriting productions of the San Francisco Opera and the Russian National Orchestra.
Getty's opera The Canterville Ghost was premiered on May 9, 2015, at the Leipzig Opera.
On Christmas Day, 1964, he married Ann Gilbert (1941âÂÂ2020) in Las Vegas, Nevada. Gordon and Ann Getty lived in a yellow Italianate mansion in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, with sweeping views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. Over the years, Getty and Ann, a publisher and a decorator, expanded their living space, buying the house next door (to make room for his work at the piano) and then the house next door to that. They hosted charity events, opera stars, and fundraisers for politicians, including Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom. Gavin Newsom's father, William Newsom, one of Gordon's friends since high school, managed the family trust for years.
Gordon and Ann Getty had four sons: Gordon Peter Getty Jr (born 1965); William Paul Getty (born 1970); Andrew Rork Getty (1967âÂÂ2015); John Gilbert Getty (1968âÂÂ2020).
Getty's assets are managed by Vallejo Investments. Vallejo Investments is what's known as a "family office," an in-house financial team of specialized attorneys, accountants, and money managers.
Getty has a second family based in Los Angeles, including three daughters, with his former longtime mistress Cynthia Beck.
His donations to University of San Francisco helped build the Koret Health & Recreation Center, John Lo Schiavo, S.J. Center for Science & Innovation, and helped establish the J. Paul Getty Honors College Fund.
Robert Trivers, an evolutionary scientist, a longtime friend of both Getty and Epstein, introduced Getty to Epstein in 2013, according to the Epstein Files released in 2026. Epstein and Getty exchanged emails for years starting in 2013, five years after EpsteinâÂÂs conviction in Florida for soliciting underage girls for sex. According to a May 3, 2018 email, Trivers told Epstein that Getty had asked him âÂÂwhether you were the same Jeffrey accused of relations with minors.âÂÂWrote Trivers, âÂÂI said âÂÂyesâ and he (Getty) said, âÂÂwell, we ALL have similar kinds of problems.âÂÂâ Trivers then explained GettyâÂÂs scandal that he had fathered three daughters in an extramarital affair with mistress Cynthia Beck. Trivers told Epstein that he had defended him to Getty: âÂÂI said that I thought you had acted with integrity, both in the protection the young women received from you and your woman friend.âÂÂ
An assistant of Getty tried to arrange a meeting between the two in December 2013, but were only able to meet in March 2014, due to scheduling conflicts. They remained on the email threads until April 2019, but it is unclear whether they continued to personally communicate with each other.
Gordon Getty's life as a composer was chronicled in Peter Rosen's documentary Gordon Getty: There Will be Music, which premiered on February 5, 2016, at Cinema Village in New York City. It has been broadcast on PBS in the U.S. and Europe on ARTE, as well as film festivals and programs across the country.
Opera
Cantata
Chamber works
Choral works
Orchestral works
Voice and Orchestra
Solo Instrument
Piano works
Songs
Arrangements of existing works