The Greek Tycoon is a 1978 American biographical romantic drama film, of the roman à clef type, directed by J. Lee Thompson.

Onassis' son did die in a plane crash, one of his ex-wives committed suicide and the marriage was short lived due to a sudden illness.

Aging Greek Theo Tomasis rose from his peasant roots to become a mogul who owns oil tankers, airlines, and Mediterranean islands and longs to be elected President of Greece.

Theo immediately is attracted to her and, despite the fact she is happily married, begins to woo her aboard his yacht while James converses with the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The President does not care for Tomasis due to his shady dealings in the shipping business and Arab oil states, so Lizzie goes by herself, much to his anger.

Lizzie is attracted to Tomasis' free spirit and joie de vivre and leaves the vacation early to go back to the states-much to his protests.

After the funeral, Lizzie becomes depressed and stays outside of public eyes even though the former President's brother John (the attorney general) requests she help promote his campaign.

Lizzie wants to but is worried about appearances in her country, but he outlines the arrangement that is fair and financially attractive enough to abandon the Cassidy family fortune and control.

Lizzie manages to coax him out of his moods, and things appear to look up as his lawyer and representative cops him a cheap plea deal on the oil manipulation charges.

The film's theme song, "(Life is) Just a Dance with Time," was written by John Kongos and recorded by Petula Clark in both English and French (as "Le Grec").

[citation needed] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "as witless as it is gutless" and said it "recalls a sort of newspaper journalism you don't see much anymore — the Sunday supplement recapitulation of a famous murder, divorce or other scandal, put together, from morgue clips, and filled out by the writer with breathless speculation about what really might have happened and what really might have been said, always with more exclamation points than are absolutely necessary.

"[10] Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and wrote, "'The Greek Tycoon' was not made without a certain style, and it cost a lot of money, but watching it is somehow like witnessing a multimillion-dollar cinematic edition of the National Enquirer."

Ebert went on to state, however, that "I must give credit where due: The role of the tycoon is wonderfully well-acted by Anthony Quinn, and the movie's good moments are all his.

"[12] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "surprisingly enough, once past the obligatory gestures to the lavish jet set genre to which 'The Greek Tycoon' inevitably belongs, we're actually able to forget Quinn and Miss Bisset's real-life counterparts and become involved and even moved by a stormy-tender romance between two dramatic people.

"[13] Jack Kroll of Newsweek called it a "foul and sleazy film" that "is so awful you hate to use it to raise an ethical issue, but it does make you wonder just when sleaze curdles into slander - moral if not legal.

"[14] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called the film "definitely on the blah side ... Producer Allen Klein and the hirelings responsible for 'The Greek Tycoon' lack the courage of their own tastelessness.