Mr Getty, 47, was discovered in the bathroom and, according to one report, had suffered a traumatic injury.
A woman who was at the house called emergency services and was later led out of the compound by police.
Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Jack Richter said she was cooperating with detectives and had not been arrested,
Celebrity news website TMZ reported the woman was an ex-girlfriend of Mr Getty and that police had been to the home more than 30 times in the past mostly due to reports of domestic disturbances.
The oil heir had reportedly sought a restraining order against a woman two weeks ago.
But LAPD Commander Andrew Smith told the Los Angeles Times it was still “very, very early in the investigation" and at the outset "this does not appear immediately to be a criminal act".
He said police were called at 2.18pm to Mr Getty's residence at the end of a narrow street in an area that has some of the most expensive properties in Los Angeles and is home to leading members of the film industry.
Mr Getty was one of four sons of Gordon Getty, who is worth $2.1 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Gordon Getty is the son of the late J. Paul Getty who died in 1976..
J. Paul Getty merged several smaller oil companies into Getty Oil in the 1960s and at one point became the richest man in America.
In a statement a spokesman for Gordon Getty said: "The family has requested that members of the media and the public respect its privacy during this extremely difficult time."
It is the latest tragedy to hit the Scotch-Irish family.
In 1973 J. Paul Getty III, 16, another grandson of J. Paul Getty, was kidnapped and held for five months.
His severed ear was sent to a newspaper and the family paid a ransom of $2.8 million.
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