Founder of Playboy Magazine, Hugh Hefner, died Wednesday at his Beverly Hills home, the Playboy Mansion, at age 91.
Founder of Playboy Magazine, Hugh Hefner, died Wednesday at his Beverly Hills home, the Playboy Mansion, at age 91.
According to his company, Playboy Enterprises, he died of natural causes.
Hefner founded Playboy Magazine more than 60 years ago where it is said he borrowed $600-$1000 from his mother to start it.
The magazine was created as an upscale men's magazine, combining images of nude women with in-depth articles, interviews, and fiction by writers and subjects. His first feature on his magazine was Marilyn Monroe late in 1953. Over the years many famous women have graced the front page of the magazine show little to no clothing such as Kim Kardashian, Naomi Campbell, and Paris Hilton.
The magazine excelled and thrived during the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s and '70s, but in recent years it has struggled due to tough competition from access to free pornography online.
The magazine a brief no nudity stint from the mid-2016 through early 2017, where the magazine experimented with no nudity before reverting to its previous nudity model.
Hefner was known for taking a progressive approach to sexuality through politics, culture, literature, and humor.
He also led free-speech battles and fought for his freedom of speech all the way to the Supreme Court after the United States Post Office refused to deliver his magazine due to immodesty.
Hefner is survived by his wife, Crystal, who was 25 when she married him at age 85; sons, Cooper, David and Marston; and his daughter, Christie, who became president of the company in 1982 and then CEO until 2009.
