page_title: Aristotle Onassis
section_title: Death and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Aristotle Onassis / Death and legacy
caption_attribution_description: Olympic Tower New York
context_page_description: Aristotle Socrates Onassis, commonly called Ari or Aristo Onassis, was a Greek shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately owned shipping fleet and was one of the world's richest and most famous men. He was married to Athina Mary Livanos, had an affair with famous opera singer Maria Callas and was married to Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of American President John F. Kennedy.
  Onassis was born in Smyrna and fled the city with his family to Greece in 1922 in the wake of the Greco-Turkish War. He moved to Argentina in 1923 and established himself as a tobacco trader and later a shipping owner during the Second World War. Moving to Monaco, Onassis fought Prince Rainier III for economic control of the country through his ownership of SBM and its Monte Carlo Casino. In the mid-1950s, he sought to secure an oil shipping arrangement with Saudi Arabia and engaged in whaling expeditions. In the 1960s, Onassis attempted to establish a large investment contract—Project Omega—with the Greek military junta, and he sold Olympic Airways, which he had founded in 1957.
context_section_description: Onassis died at age 69 on 15 March 1975 at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, of respiratory failure, a complication of the myasthenia gravis from which he had been suffering during the last years of his life. Onassis was buried on his island of Skorpios in Greece, alongside his son, Alexander. Onassis' will established a charitable foundation in memory of his son, the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, which received 45% of Onassis' estate. The remainder of his estate was left to his daughter, Christina.
  Jacqueline Onassis also received her share of the estate, settling for a reported $10 million ($26 million according to other sources), which was negotiated by her brother-in-law Ted Kennedy. This amount would reportedly grow to several hundred million under the financial stewardship of her companion Maurice Tempelsman. Christina's share has since passed to her only child Athina, at the time making Athina one of the wealthiest women in the world.
caption: Onassis financed the construction of the Olympic Tower in New York City.
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