The name Aristotle Onassis is synonymous with wealth, power, and glamour. But the story of how this son of Greek refugees built one of the world‘s great shipping empires is a truly remarkable tale of grit, ambition, and audacity.
Onassis was born in 1906 into a prosperous Greek family in the cosmopolitan city of Smyrna, located in what is now Turkey. But his privileged upbringing was shattered in 1922 when Turkish forces captured Smyrna during the Greco-Turkish War, massacring ethnic Greeks and Armenians and burning the city. The Onassis family lost everything and several of Aristotle‘s close relatives were killed. They escaped to Greece as penniless refugees.
From Refugee to Tycoon
Determined to rebuild his family‘s fortune, 17-year-old Aristotle Onassis set out alone for Argentina. He found work as a telephone operator while studying business at night. Applying his knowledge, Onassis started importing Turkish tobacco to Argentina. He soon diversified into bringing in English Turkish tobacco as well as exporting Argentine grain, corn, and linseed oil.
His business thrived and by age 25, Onassis had made his first million dollars. In 1932, he founded the Olympic Maritime Company, his first foray into the shipping industry that would make him a legend.
Onassis began buying cargo ships in earnest in the late 1930s, snapping them up at rock-bottom prices in the waning years of the Great Depression. During World War II he leased vessels to the U.S. government to transport war supplies to Europe and Asia. After the war, he acquired surplus Liberty ships and T2 tankers at bargain rates to further expand his fleet.
By securing long-term contracts with major oil companies to transport crude oil, Onassis‘ shipping empire grew to colossal size. At its height in the 1960s, his fleet boasted over 70 vessels, including more than 40 supertankers, making it one of the largest private shipping companies in the world. Onassis pioneered the use of these massive supertankers and landed lucrative contracts to transport Saudi Arabian crude.
Onassis even branched out into whaling, operating a fleet of whaling ships off the coast of Peru in the 1950s until the industry declined. His whalers frequently clashed with Peruvian authorities when they violated territorial waters and whaling restrictions.
At his peak in the early 1970s, Aristotle Onassis was one of the richest men in the world with a net worth around $500 million (over $3 billion today). His vast holdings included shipping and whaling fleets, the Greek national airline Olympic Airways, Monte Carlo‘s famed casino and hotels, private islands such as Skorpios, and the legendary 325-foot luxury yacht Christina O.
Rivalries and Controversies
Onassis‘ aggressive deal-making and larger-than-life personality often put him at odds with business rivals, governments, and even royalty. He maintained a long and bitter feud with fellow Greek shipping tycoon Stavros Niarchos. The two battled for decades over Saudi oil shipping contracts and control of Olympic Airways, a rivalry that destabilized the global tanker market.
In the 1950s, Onassis rankled U.S. oil interests after signing a major contract to transport Saudi crude. Texas oilman and political kingmaker Clint Murchison Sr. convinced the FBI to investigate Onassis for fraud. Though never charged with a crime, Onassis was still forced to pay a $7 million fine, an episode that left him deeply distrustful of the American government.
Onassis spent over a decade trying to transform the principality of Monaco into a year-round luxury resort and gambling center. Beginning in 1953, he acquired a large stake in the country‘s Société des Bains de Mer (SBM) which owned the famous Monte Carlo Casino and most of Monaco‘s top hotels. But this brought him into direct conflict with Monaco‘s ruler, Prince Rainier III, who resented Onassis‘ rising influence and feared it threatened his own power.
As Rainier worked to undermine him and the SBM business soured, an outraged Onassis was eventually compelled to sell off his shares and abandon his plans for Monaco in 1966. "To be treated in such a manner!" he fumed to the press. "I will never forget or forgive what he has done to me."
Back in his native Greece, Onassis decided to launch a massively ambitious project to industrialize the nation‘s economy. In 1968, he announced "Project Omega", a five-year, $400 million scheme to build oil refineries, aluminum factories, power plants, road networks, and other infrastructure across Greece.
The project was to be financed and managed by Onassis himself, but it required the cooperation of the military junta that had seized power in Greece the year before. Onassis assiduously courted the junta leader, Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos, and secured his backing. However, the plan quickly ran into delays and opposition from other junta members who resented Onassis‘ influence. His shipping rival Stavros Niarchos also lobbied to have the project divided up among different contractors.
As the junta‘s interest waned, Onassis drastically scaled back his ambitions. In the end, very little of "Project Omega" materialized, delivering a high-profile defeat for Onassis and demonstrating the limitations of his political clout even in his homeland.
Taking Olympic Airways to New Heights
One of Aristotle Onassis‘ most high-profile business ventures was his takeover and transformation of Greece‘s ailing national airline in the 1950s. In 1956, the Greek government handed control of the nearly-bankrupt carrier to Onassis in a bid to save it from collapse.
Onassis promptly renamed it Olympic Airways and set out to overhaul every aspect of its operations. He invested heavily in crew training, maintenance facilities, and a fleet of new aircraft. Onassis added lucrative routes to North America and Australia and opened a state-of-the-art flight academy to train pilots and technicians.
Under Onassis‘ leadership, Olympic entered a "golden age" of rapid expansion and rising profits. For over a decade Olympic was a paragon of 1960s jet-set luxury, whisking celebrities and the global elite to Greek tourism hotspots and destinations worldwide. "We used to say that he would spend all the money he made at sea with his mistress in the sky," one longtime executive recalled.
But by the early 1970s, Olympic again found itself losing money amid labor disputes, government meddling, and Onassis‘ waning attention. After Onassis lost control of Olympic in 1974, the Greek government renationalized the airline. Olympic Airways never recaptured the glory of its 1960s heyday and finally ceased operations in 2009.
Personal Triumphs and Tragedies
For all his business success, Aristotle Onassis‘ personal life was marked by turbulence and deep sorrow. In 1946, he married 17-year-old shipping heiress Athina Livanos in what was billed as the "wedding of the century" in Greece. The couple had two children together, son Alexander and daughter Christina, but the marriage grew strained as Onassis spent long periods away tending to his business empire.
In the mid-1950s, Onassis began a highly publicized affair with the renowned opera singer Maria Callas. Their jet-setting romance captivated the international press, but it torpedoed Onassis‘ marriage to Athina. The pair divorced bitterly in 1960 after Athina caught her husband and Callas together on the family yacht.
Onassis doted on his son Alexander and was grooming the young man to one day take over the family business. But those dreams were dashed in 1973 when the 24-year-old died in a plane crash. The tragedy left Onassis utterly devastated. He sank into depression and began drinking heavily as his health rapidly declined.
Just a year earlier in 1968, Onassis had wed Jacqueline Kennedy, the glamorous widow of the assassinated U.S. president John F. Kennedy, in a lavish ceremony on his private Greek island of Skorpios. Global media outlets breathlessly covered the courtship and marriage of "Jackie O" and the Greek tycoon. But behind the glittering facade, the match was far from serene.
Onassis‘ children deeply resented their new stepmother. Daughter Christina in particular saw her as an interloper and worried Jackie had brought the "Kennedy curse" down on the family. After Alexander‘s death, Onassis seemed to share Christina‘s view, and his once-warm relationship with Jackie turned cold. He began pushing his wife away as his drinking and philandering escalated.
A Complicated Legacy
Aristotle Onassis died in Paris on March 15, 1975 at the age of 69. The cause of death was listed as respiratory failure, but those close to him claimed heavy smoking and years of hard living had ruined his once-robust health.
Per Onassis‘ wishes, he was buried on his beloved island of Skorpios beside his son Alexander. Onassis bequeathed the majority of his estate to daughter Christina, with a significant portion also going to the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, a charitable organization he established in memory of his son.
But Onassis‘ sprawling business empire was in disarray by the time of his death. Reckless over-expansion during the go-go years of the 1960s had left his companies saddled with debt. The 1973-1974 oil crisis then devastated the tanker industry. Many of Onassis‘ firms were operating at a loss or teetering on bankruptcy in his final months.
After Onassis‘ death, his daughter Christina and widow Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis battled over the estate. Jackie eventually accepted a $26 million settlement from Christina to relinquish any further claims on the Onassis fortune. Christina then spent years selling off business assets and stakes to pay inheritance taxes and settle her father‘s massive debts.
Today, Aristotle Onassis is remembered as one of the most iconic and controversial businessmen of the 20th century. His spectacular rise from penniless refugee to "Golden Greek" tycoon captivated the world. Onassis‘ groundbreaking shipping deals reshaped global trade. His high-flying lifestyle and jet-set romances embodied an era of freewheeling internationalism and gaudy excess.
But Onassis‘ abrasive personality and ruthless business practices also earned him many enemies over the years. And his tumultuous personal life ended up overshadowing many of his professional accomplishments.
Still, there‘s no denying the epic scope of Onassis‘ achievements. The business empire he built from nothing stands as a testament to one man‘s boundless ambition and unshakable self-belief. Even as it demonstrates the heavy toll that success often takes, Aristotle Onassis‘ wild, improbable life story never fails to fascinate precisely because it reveals so much about the protagonist himself. It‘s a legacy as complex and as endlessly intriguing as the man behind it.
