Although acutely aware of his extreme wealth, Larry Ellison took a rather pragmatic view on the effect it might have on his children.

"The sooner my kids get experience dealing with the pluses and minuses of having a lot of money, the better," he told Matthew Symonds, author of the Larry Ellison biography "Softwar."

Early on, the tech entrepreneur set up trusts for his children with large tranches of stock in Oracle, the company he co-founded in 1977 that went public in 1986; and later NetSuite, an enterprise software company he helped finance, that went public in 2007. Over time, the trusts, in addition to their independent holdings, have made David and his sister phenomenally wealthy.

Ellison initially gave his children 90,000 shares of Oracle, according to Forbes. By 2013, the stock had split 10 times, increasing the trust to 29.2 million shares, then worth nearly $1 billion. Two years later, Forbes reported that Ellison's heirs owned 2.8% of Oracle stock valued at more than $4.8 billion.

During high school, Ellison spent a pair of summers working at Oracle, but the tech universe held little interest for him.

After transferring from Pepperdine to USC's film school, he dropped out in 2005 during his senior year to make his first film, "Flyboys." (Megan was the boom operator on his senior thesis film. She later founded Annapurna Pictures, maker of critically acclaimed films including "Zero Dark Thirty.")

Ellison co-starred with James Franco in the World War I aerial combat film, about a group of young Americans who volunteered for the French military. Ellison also put up 30% of the movie's $60-million budget, in a deal brokered with then-ICM agent Jim Berg.

Tony Bill, the movie's director, recalled Ellison as modest, well-mannered and someone who became popular with the other young cast members during filming. Bill, who won a best picture Oscar for producing "The Sting," found Ellison's demeanor "extraordinary."

"He never said or behaved or implied in any way who he was behind the scenes." When the rest of the cast did find out, Bill said, they were in shock. "It was like are you ... kidding me? I can't imagine anyone I've ever known who was famous or rich who didn't find a way to drop it in along the way."

"Flyboys" bombed, earning just $18 million at the box office worldwide.

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