Balthazar Getty

Getty was born as Paul Balthazar Getty in Tarzana, California and raised in San Francisco before being sent to private school in Britain, where he was enrolled at Gordonstoun School, an elite boarding school that has educated three generations of the British Royal Family.

John Paul Getty III - a scion of the Getty oil dynasty whose kidnapping made headlines in the 1970s when his family refused to pay a ransom until they were sent his severed ear - has died.

Getty died on Saturday in Buckinghamshire, England, after a long illness, according to a statement from his son, actor Balthazar Getty. He was 54.

Left nearly blind and a quadriplegic after a drug-induced stroke in the 1980s, Getty was known largely for his misfortunes. The grandson of American oil magnate J. Paul Getty, he was kidnapped in Rome when he was 16. His grandfather

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and father believed the kidnapping to be a hoax, until young Getty's severed right ear was sent to a newspaper.