Hugh Hefner Biography • American Magazine Publisher & Businessman

Hugh Marston Hefner was an American businessman & magazine publisher, the founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles which provoked charges of obscenity. The first issue of Playboy was published in 1953 featuring Marilyn Monroe in a nude calendar shoot; it sold over 50,000 copies. Before Playboy he worked for Esquire. Hefner is also a World War II veteran.

Early Life

Hugh Hefner was born into a Methodist family, to Glenn Hefner, an accountant, and Grace (Swanson) Hefner, a teacher, on April 9, 1926 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He had a younger brother, Keith (1929–2016). His mother was of Swedish ancestry, and his father was German and English.
He was raised in Woodlawn, Chicago. Hefner served in the US Army (1944 – 1946). He was graduated from Steinmetz High School (Chicago, IL). He attended the Art Institute of Chicago (1946), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, earning a BA in Psychology (1949), and Northwestern University, 1949.

Career of Hugh Hefner

Hefner was self-made multi-millionaire, he owned a multi-million mansion called the Playboy Mansion. His net is worth over $43 million by publishing Playboy. He was also the executive producer of Roman Polanski‘s 1971 movie version of Macbeth. Hefner also appeared in cameos of himself in some movies.

Marriages and Children

In 1949, Hefner married Northwestern University student Mildred Williams. They divorced in 1959. He married Playmate of the Year Kimberley Conrad in 1988. They separated in 1998. In December 31, 2012, Hefner married Crystal Harris at the Playboy Mansion in a small private ceremony; he was 86 and she was 26.
Hefner has several children. With Mildred, he has David Paul (August 30, 1955) and Christie Ann (November 8, 1952). With Kimberley, he has Cooper Bradford (September 4, 1991) and Marston Glenn (April 9, 1990).

Death

Hefner died at his home in Beverly Hills, California on September 27, 2017 after suffering from a cardiac arrest and sepsis caused by respiratory failure and an e. coli infection the age of 91.