Aristotle Onassis

Aristotle Onassis (1906-1975) is probably the most famous Greek businessman and he was considered one of the richest man in the world, when he was alive. Born in Smyrna, now Izmir Turkey, to Greek parents, he left to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1922 with 63 dollars in his pocket and managed to make a vast fortune, out of tobacco trade at first and then of shipping. Although his methods were not always legal, he managed to exploit his persuasive nature, acquaintances and good luck to get rich.

Onassis married twice. His first marriage to Athina Livanos gave him two children, a daughter and a son. His second marriage was to Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of the murdered US President John Kennedy. He also had a long-term affair to opera diva Maria Callas, from 1957 till 1968, when he married Jacqueline Kennedy in his private Greek island, Scorpios, a few miles off the coastline of Lefkada Greece. Aristotle Onassis died from myasthenia gravis in 1975 in Paris, not bearing the tragic death of his beloved son, Alexander, in 1973.