Hugh Hefner, Playboy Founder, Dies At Age 91
Posted: September 28th, 2017, 5:52 am
Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine, died Wednesday at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, surrounded by loved ones, the magazine said in a statement. He was 91. He died of from natural causes. Hefner was an icon for the sexual revolution of the 1960's.
Asked by the New York Times in 1992 of what he was proudest, Hefner 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."
When he turned 85, he cheerfully observed, "You're as young as the girl you feel."
The man known to millions simply as "Hef" was born April 9, 1926, in Chicago, the elder of two sons.
His parents were strict Methodists and Hefner went to Chicago schools before joining the Army, attending the Chicago Art Institute and graduating from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with a degree in psychology.
"Part of the reason that I am who I am is my Puritan roots run deep," he told the Associated Press in 2011. "My folks are Puritan. My folks are prohibitionists. There was no drinking in my home. No discussion of sex. And I think I saw the hurtful and hypocritical side of that from very early on. "
After working first as a copywriter for "Esquire" – where he reportedly left because he didn't get a $5 raise – Hefner decided to start his own publication and he raised $8,000 from 45 investors to launch "Playboy" in December 1953. (He had originally planned to call it "Stag Night," but was forced to change the name to avoid trademark infringement.)
It was produced in his kitchen and carried no date because he wasn't sure there would be a second issue.
But with the trademark intuition and shrewdness that seemed to always ensure his success, Hefner had acquired a nude photo of Marilyn Monroe for the centerfold, taken before the start of her film career.
"If you had to sum up the idea of Playboy, it is anti-Puritanism," he was quoted as saying as the country's mood became more hedonistic. "Not just in regard to sex but the whole range of play and pleasure."
n 1975, Hefner moved to Los Angeles and in 1985, he suffered a minor stroke. In 1989, he married longtime girlfriend Kimberly Conrad and for a while became a family man with two young sons before the couple separated in 1998.
Conrad and Hefner's divorce was finalized in 2010 and he proposed in 2011 to 24-year-old Crystal Harris, a former Playmate. Harris called off the wedding days before the ceremony, but changed her mind and they married at the end of 2012.
He acknowledged, at age 85, that "I never really found my soulmate."
Hefner is survived by his wife Crystal as well as his daughter, Christie; and his sons, David, Marston and Cooper.
Playboy released no information on any memorial plans, but Hefner owns a burial plot at a Los Angeles cemetery next to Marilyn Monroe.
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/20 ... at-91.html
Asked by the New York Times in 1992 of what he was proudest, Hefner 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."
When he turned 85, he cheerfully observed, "You're as young as the girl you feel."
The man known to millions simply as "Hef" was born April 9, 1926, in Chicago, the elder of two sons.
His parents were strict Methodists and Hefner went to Chicago schools before joining the Army, attending the Chicago Art Institute and graduating from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with a degree in psychology.
"Part of the reason that I am who I am is my Puritan roots run deep," he told the Associated Press in 2011. "My folks are Puritan. My folks are prohibitionists. There was no drinking in my home. No discussion of sex. And I think I saw the hurtful and hypocritical side of that from very early on. "
After working first as a copywriter for "Esquire" – where he reportedly left because he didn't get a $5 raise – Hefner decided to start his own publication and he raised $8,000 from 45 investors to launch "Playboy" in December 1953. (He had originally planned to call it "Stag Night," but was forced to change the name to avoid trademark infringement.)
It was produced in his kitchen and carried no date because he wasn't sure there would be a second issue.
But with the trademark intuition and shrewdness that seemed to always ensure his success, Hefner had acquired a nude photo of Marilyn Monroe for the centerfold, taken before the start of her film career.
"If you had to sum up the idea of Playboy, it is anti-Puritanism," he was quoted as saying as the country's mood became more hedonistic. "Not just in regard to sex but the whole range of play and pleasure."
n 1975, Hefner moved to Los Angeles and in 1985, he suffered a minor stroke. In 1989, he married longtime girlfriend Kimberly Conrad and for a while became a family man with two young sons before the couple separated in 1998.
Conrad and Hefner's divorce was finalized in 2010 and he proposed in 2011 to 24-year-old Crystal Harris, a former Playmate. Harris called off the wedding days before the ceremony, but changed her mind and they married at the end of 2012.
He acknowledged, at age 85, that "I never really found my soulmate."
Hefner is survived by his wife Crystal as well as his daughter, Christie; and his sons, David, Marston and Cooper.
Playboy released no information on any memorial plans, but Hefner owns a burial plot at a Los Angeles cemetery next to Marilyn Monroe.
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/20 ... at-91.html