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Hugh Hefner
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Hugh Hefner wearing a tuxedo and bow tie, smiling at the camera at an event in 2009. Hefner, Hugh Anna Nicole Smith in a white halter dress sits next to Hugh Hefner, who is wearing a light suit, on a couch at the Playboy Mansion. Framed photos are visible in the background.
Quick Facts
In full:
Hugh Marston Hefner
Born:
April 9, 1926, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died:
September 27, 2017, Los Angeles, California (aged 91)
Founder:
“Playboy”
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Hugh Hefner wearing a tuxedo and bow tie, smiling at the camera at an event in 2009.
Hugh Hefner Hugh Hefner, 2009.

Hugh Hefner

American publisher and entrepreneur
Also known as: Hugh Marston Hefner
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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Last updated
•History

Hugh Hefner (born April 9, 1926, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.—died September 27, 2017, Los Angeles, California) was an American magazine publisher and entrepreneur who founded (1953) Playboy magazine.

Hefner, Hugh
Hefner, HughHugh Hefner with the waitstaff of the original Playboy Club, Chicago, 1960.

After serving in the U.S. Army (1944–46), Hefner attended the University of Illinois, graduating in 1949. Four years later he created the men’s magazine Playboy. Its intellectually respectable articles and forthright philosophy of hedonism made Playboy a major influence on the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Hefner later expanded his enterprise into nightclubs and other entertainment media.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
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