March 31, 2015: A police officer creates a perimeter outside a home in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles. Police say a man was found dead at the home of Andrew Getty, heir to Getty oil fortune. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Andrew Getty, an heir to the Getty oil fortune, was found dead Tuesday afternoon at his home in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles. He was 47.
Los Angeles County coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter said that Getty's death appeared to be from natural causes, but had initially been called an accident because of medication found at the scene. He said coroner's officials need to await the results of further examination and toxicology tests, which could take up to 10 weeks to process.
"The tentative information that we do have is that he was not feeling good for the last couple months," Winter said, "and he supposedly had an appointment tomorrow with a personal physician."
Getty's parents, Ann and Gordon Getty, confirmed their son's death in a statement released late Tuesday. They asked that the media and public respect the family's privacy and said further statements would be issued as information becomes available.
Police spokesman Jack Richter said that officers were called to Getty's home at around 2:15 p.m. local time Tuesday by an unidentified woman. Richter said a man's body was found in a bathroom of the house, and investigators interviewed the woman. LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said the woman was cooperating with the investigation. Richter said she had not been placed under arrest.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Getty had owned the home since 1996. The Times also reported, citing court records, that Getty sought a restraining order against a woman two weeks ago. It was not immediately clear if that woman was the same person who reported his death to police.
Andrew Getty was one of four sons of Gordon Getty, a San Francisco multibillionaire who's considered one of the richest men in the United States, and a grandson of J. Paul Getty, who founded the Getty Oil Company and at one time was called the richest living American.
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.
Another Getty grandson, J. Paul Getty III, died in 2011 at age 54 after losing an ear in a grisly 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 the severed organ 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 $2.7 million.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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