Getty was raised in San Francisco, California, attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory, University of San Francisco and earned a B.A. in music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He married Ann Gilbert in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Christmas Day, 1964.
He joined the oil Business to please his father; however, he eventually sold the family's Getty Oil to Texaco in 1986 for US$10 billion. In 1983, Forbes magazine ranked him the richest person in America with a net worth a little over $2 billion. His current net worth is cited as $2 billion, making him the 212th richest person in the United States.
In 2002, Getty founded ReFlow, a company which temporarily purchases shares in mutual funds to save funds taxes and commissions.
On May 9, 2015 was the premiere at Leipzig Opera of The Canterville Ghost opera by Gordon Getty.
Gordon Getty's life and work 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.
