Hugh Hefner: Iconic Playboy Magazine Founder Dies At 91

Hugh Hefner, the iconic Playboy Magazine founder who helped steer nudity into mainstream America, has died aged 91.

The silk pajamas-wearing entrepreneur, who once said he would rather have sex than have his hearing after his constant use of Viagra to maintain his very active sex life caused him to use hearing aids and was completely deaf in one ear, died on Wednesday from natural causes in his Beverly Hills home, the famed Playboy Mansion, the magazine aounced.

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Playboy Enterprise’s chief creative officer, Cooper Hefner, Hugh’s son, in a statement said:

“My father lived an exceptional and impactful life as a media and cultural pioneer and a leading voice behind some of the most significant social and cultural movements of our time in advocating free speech, civil rights, and sexual freedom.”

“He defined a lifestyle and ethos that lie at the heart of the Playboy brand, one of the most recognizable and enduring in history.”

Hugh Marston Hefner was born in Chicago on April 9, 1926, to strict Methodist parents who he said never showed “love in a physical or emotional way.”

He served two years in the Army during World War II before finding a job at Esquire as a copywriter.

In 1953, Hugh Hefner founded the upscale men’s magazine after saving up $8,000, enough to put the first issue of Playboy together. He combined images of nude women with in-depth articles, literature, and interviews.

The magazine hit newsstands in December that year and included an old nude photo of Marilyn Monroe in the centerfold. The issue sold more than 50,000 copies.

Though best known for its erotic photography, Playboy magazine also published lots of short stories by novelists including Vladimir Nabokov and Chuck Palahniuk. Other journalists include Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood, and Hunter S. Thompson.

In a 1992 interview with the New York Times, Hugh Hefner was asked what he was proudest about. He responded:

“That I changed attitudes toward sex. That nice people can live together now. That I decontaminated the notion of premarital sex. That gives me great satisfaction.”

By his own account, Hefner has had sex with more than a thousand women, including many pictured in his magazine.

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In 1949, Hef, as he is popularly called, married Mildred Williams, with whom he had two children. The couple divorced in 1958.

In July 1989, he married Kimberley Conrad, the 1989 Playmate of the Year, who was then 27. The couple also had two children.

His third and final marriage was to Crystal Harris, the Playboy Playmate of the Month for December 2009. The two got married on December 31, 2012, at the Playboy Mansion in a small private ceremony. He was 86 and she was 26.

Hefner is survived by his wife Crystal as well as his daughter, Christie; and his sons, David, Marston and Cooper.

Hugh Hefner Tributes