Aristotle Socrates Onassis (, ;[1], ; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975)[2] was a Greek and Argentine[3][4] business magnate. He 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 a long-standing affair with opera singer Maria Callas, and in his final years was married to American former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.[5]
Onassis was born in Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire to Greek parents and fled the city with his family to Greece in 1922 in the wake of the burning of Smyrna. 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 sold Olympic Airways, which he had founded in 1957. He was greatly affected by the death of his son, Alexander, in 1973 and died two years later.
Early life
Ottoman Empire
Aristotle Socrates Onassis was born in 1906 in Karataş, a suburb of the Ottoman port city of Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey) in Anatolia to Greek parents, Socrates Onassis and Penelope Dologlou. One of his grandfathers, Hristos Konialidis, was a Cappadocian Greek who originated from Talas, Kayseri and migrated to Akhisar for trade in the 19th century.<[6]<[7] Aristotle had one sister, Artemis, and two half-sisters, Kalliroi and Merope, by his father's second marriage following Penelope's death (1912).
Socrates Onassis became a successful shipping entrepreneur and sent his children to prestigious schools. When Aristotle graduated from the local Evangelical Greek School at the age of 16, he spoke four languages: Greek (his native language), Turkish, Spanish, and English.<r[8]<r[9]
Business
Shipping
Onassis built up a fleet of freighters and tankers that eventually exceeded seventy vessels. Most of the fleet operated under flags of convenience where laws and regulations are looser than those of the owners' country. More austere regulations in countries such as the United States, which afforded higher wages and safety standards, allowed access to domestic routes with higher freight rates but at far greater running expense. As was then common practice in international shipping, Onassis's fleet had mostly Panamanian and Liberian flags and sailed tax-free while operating at low cost. This and his astute business sense helped Onassis earn handsome profits in the highly competitive shipping market. Onassis made large profits when the Big Oil companies like Mobil, Socony, and Texaco signed long-term contracts known as time charters at fixed prices before the stock market fell.
The high profitability of the Onassis fleet has been attributed in large part to his disregard for standards that normally govern international shipping.<r[14] For example, after his Liberian-registered tanker SS Arrow ran aground and spilled oil into Chedabucto Bay, Nova Scotia
Relationships and family
Athina Livanos
Onassis married Athina Mary "Tina" Livanos, daughter of shipping magnate Stavros G. Livanos and Arietta Zafirakis, on 28 December 1946. Livanos was 17 at the time of their marriage; Onassis was 40. Onassis and Livanos had two children, both born in New York City: a son, Alexander (1948–1973), and a daughter, Christina (1950–1988). Onassis named his legendary super-yacht, Christina O, after his daughter. To Onassis, his marriage to Athina was more than the fulfillment of his ambitions. He also felt that the marriage dealt a blow to his father-in-law and the old-money Greek traditionalists who held Onassis in very low esteem. The couple had been living separately, by the mid-1950s, with the beginning of the end of the marriage, according to Onassis' biographer, Peter Evens, coming after Livanos found Onassis in bed with a friend of hers at their home in Cap d'Antibes, the Château de la Croë. The house was then acquired by Onassis's brother-in-law and business rival Stavros Niarchos, who bought it for his wife, Eugenia Livanos, Athina's sister. Onassis and Livanos divorced in June 1960, during Onassis's well publicised affair with Maria Callas. Athina would later marry, in October 1971, her older sister Eugenia's widower Stavros Niarchos, who was her first husband Onassis's arch-rival.
Maria Callas
Death and legacy
Onassis died at the age of 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 suffered the last years of his life. Onassis is buried on his island of Skorpios in Greece, alongside his son, Alexander, and his sister, Artemis.<r[30] Onassis's will established a charitable foundation in memory of his son, the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, which received 45% of Onassis's estate. The remainder of his estate was left to his daughter, Christina. Christina's share has since passed to her only child, Athina, at the time making Athina one of the wealthiest women in the world.<r[31]
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.<r[32] After Aristotle's death, Christina had settled with Jacqueline for $25 million in exchange for her not contesting Onassis's will.<r[33]
See also
- Onassis Foundation
- Greek shipping
- Stavros Niarchos
Further reading
External links
- Onassis Foundation official website
- Onassis Foundation Archived from the original on 24 June 2015.
- FBI file on Onassis
References
- "Onassis". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.^
- Aristotle Socrates Onassis Encyclopædia Britannica, 29 March 2024^
- Biografia de Onassis Aristóteles Millonario Griego Armador de Barcos historiaybiografias.com, retrieved 28 November 2017