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'Aristotelis Sokratis' (also 'Ari') 'Onassis' (in Greek, 'Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης') (January 20, 1900 – March 15, 1975) was the most famous shipping magnate of the 20th century. [1]

Contents

Life

Marriage and family

Death

See also

References

External links

Life

Onassis was born in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire (now İzmir, Turkey) to a middle-class Greek family. At the time of his birth, Smyrna had a very significant and prosperous Greek population. After being briefly occupied by Greece (1919-1922) in the aftermath of the allied victory in World War I, the city was re-captured by Turkey; the Onassis family holdings were lost, causing them to move to Greece as refugees. In 1923, Aristotle Onassis left his country to go to Argentina with allegedly only $63. After difficult beginnings, he revived there the family's tobacco business.^[1] In 1925, he received Argentinian and Greek citizenships. After engaging in many different entrepreneurial activities with determination and passion for success, he finally managed to become a world-class businessman making his first million by the age of 25 ^[2], owning commercial ships, tankers and whalers. In 1954, the FBI investigated Onassis for fraud against the U.S. government. He was charged with violating the citizenship provision of the shipping laws which require that all ships displaying the US flag be owned by US citizens. Onassis entered a guilty plea and paid $7 million. He founded Olympic Airways (today Olympic Airlines), the Greek national carrier, in 1957.

Marriage and family

Onassis married Athina Livanos, daughter of shipping magnate Stavros Livanos, on December 28, 1946; their son, Alexander (April 30, 1948 – January 23, 1973), and daughter Christina (December 11, 1950 – November 19, 1988), were both born in New York City. After their divorce, Athina married her late sister's widower (and Onassis's arch shipping rival) Stavros Niarchos.

Despite the fact they were both married, Onassis and opera diva Maria Callas embarked on a notorious affair. According to ''Greek Fire: The Story of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis'' by Nicholas Gage, Callas gave birth to their child, a boy, who died hours later on March 30, 1960. Onassis ended his relationship with Callas to marry Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, on October 20, 1968. It was said that Kennedy insisted on marriage rather than an affair so as to avoid upsetting her children. That Callas was really the love of his life is suggested by the short lived happiness he experienced with Kennedy (he tried to end the marriage early but was unable to without committing an egregious offense, according to Greek law at the time), and by the many times he tried to see Callas while married to Kennedy. He flew to Paris to see Callas after the death of his son Alexander in an airplane crash. Callas responded, "If only our son had lived," referring to the child they are believed to have had together in 1960 ^[3]. Onassis never recovered from the death of his son.

Death

Onassis died at age 75, on March 15, 1975 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, of bronchial pneumonia, a complication of the myasthenia gravis that he had been suffering from during the last years of his life. According to his will, his daughter, Christina inherited 55% of the Onassis fortune while the other 45% was used as funds for the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation set up to honor his son Alexander Onassis. This 45% was the share that his son Alexander would have inherited, had he not died in 1973. However, Jackie Kennedy received her share of the estate settling for a reported $10,000,000 dollars ($26 million according to other sources) which was negotiated by her former brother in law Teddy Kennedy (this amount would later 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, making her one of the wealthiest women in the world.

See also

★ Greek shipping

★ Skorpios

★ Christina O

★ John Paul Papanicolaou

References

1. http://www.greece.org/poseidon/work/modern-times/onassis.html
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2705643.stm
3. Gage, Nicholas (2000-10-03). Greek Fire: The Story Of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis. Knopf. ISBN 0375402446

External links

★ The Life of Aristotle Onassis

★ Christina O Photo of Onassis' famous yacht

★ The Onassis Foundation