John Jacob Astor IV was one of the richest men in the world when he died on the Titanic. Here's a look at his life.

The Astor family dates back to the early 1700s when the original John Jacob Astor (pictured) came to the Americas from a small village in Germany to make a name for himself. According to Biography, he started making money in the fur-trading businesses, but his real fortune began when he entered the world of real estate.

One of his first big purchases was a plot of land in the middle of Manhattan, modern-day Times Square. Quickly, Astor bought land all around Manhattan, becoming one of the richest men in the world and creating a dynasty.

When John Jacob Astor IV was born to William Astor and Caroline Webster Schermerhorn in 1864, the Astor name was already well-respected in high society, and the family's fortune was one of the world's largest.

According to the New Netherland Institute, he first attended St. Paul's School in Concord and then went on to Harvard University, but there is no official record of him graduating from the college. After schooling, Astor went abroad for a few years before returning to New York to take up the family business: real estate.

In 1893, William Waldorf Astor built the Waldorf Hotel on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street. Reportedly, he built the hotel to spite his cousin, John Jacob Astor IV. In retaliation, Astor built a competing hotel in 1897 on the adjacent corner and named it the Astoria Hotel.

When the cousins were finally convinced that joining both hotels would be a smart business decision, a 300-foot marble corridor was built between them, according to Architectural Digest. The famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was born.

For the next few decades, the hotel became a symbol of luxury, wealth, and class in New York. It was considered one of the best hotels in the country and even in the world.

The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel closed in 1928 and was demolished, making room for the Empire State Building. The new Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was built farther uptown in 1931, long after Astor's death.

In 1904, Astor opened the St. Regis Hotel, which The New York Times called "the finest hotel in America" at the time.

According to the St. Regis Hotel, Astor aimed to make the hotel technologically advanced and ensured that each room had a telephone, making the hotel's rooms as practical as they were glamorous. Some historians call the hotel Astor's "greatest achievement," according to Biography.

In 1894, Astor published his first and only science-fiction novel, "Journey in Other Worlds."

"A 'Journey in Other Worlds' races far ahead of the nineteenth century to imagine what life would be like in the year 2000," the Amazon synopsis reads. "At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Earth is effectively a corporate technocracy, with big businesses using incredible advances in science to improve life on the planet as a whole. Seeking other planets habitable for the growing human population, the spaceship Callisto, powered by an antigravitational force known as apergy, embarks on a momentous tour of the solar system."

In 1898, he patented a brake for the bicycle, invented a vibratory disintegrator, and created a pneumatic road-improver. He also helped invent a turbine engine.

Ava Lowle Willing and Astor had two children together, Vincent and Alice.

Although they seemed like the perfect, upper-class family, the marriage was largely unhappy. The couple got divorced in 1909, setting Astor up for one of the family's biggest scandals.

When Astor and Madeleine Talmage Force married in 1911, it became a scandal — at the time, divorce was rare and remarrying was even more so.

The controversy over their relationship even made its way onto screens decades later. In the 1997 Oscar-winning movie "Titanic," Rose points out Astor and his pregnant wife to Jack.

"His little wifey there Madeleine is my age and in delicate condition. See how she's trying to hide it? Quite the scandal," she says.

At the time, Astor was one of the world's richest men, and he certainly was the wealthiest aboard the Titanic.

He had a fortune worth somewhere between $90 and $150 million, CNBC reported, when he boarded the fateful ship. Today, he would be worth between $2.9 and $4.8 billion when adjusted for inflation.

According to Biography, Astor was among the first few people who knew the ship was sinking.

He woke his sleeping, pregnant wife and told her to get dressed in her warmest clothes. He then put all of the couple's jewelry on her, took her to the deck, and placed her in a lifeboat.

She clung to her husband and wanted to stay with him, but he reportedly said, "The sea is calm. You'll be alright. You're in good hands. I'll see you in the morning."

The New York Times reported that Astor was last seen smoking a cigarette on the deck. He was wearing a dinner suit and holding a personalized pocket watch.

Astor was among the 306 bodies found by the crew of the Mackay-Bennett in the weeks after the tragedy, according to the Nova Scotia Archives, but only one of 59 bodies that were claimed by victims' relatives and returned home.

He was reportedly identified by the initials sewn into his jacket. His pocket also contained a solid gold watch engraved with the initials JJA, according to The New York Times.

Many of the Titanic's victims were buried in a cemetery (pictured) in Halifax, but Astor's son, Vincent, traveled there to claim his father's body and bring it home to New York.

If Astor made it to the US, it's reported that he would have made his and Madeleine's unborn child the heir to his fortune, according to Biography. However, most of his money went to his first son, Vincent (pictured), from his first marriage.

John Jacob Astor VI received only a small portion of his father's fortune, but Vincent went on to donate a large sum of his father's money and became a philanthropist in New York City.

As the most famous person to die in the tragedy, Astor's name and reputation have survived through the years.

In fact, he has been portrayed in a number of TV shows and movies. Most notably, Eric Braeden played Astor in "Titanic."