• Bridget's Shopping Spree for Kendra's Baby

  E! Online - Found Nov. 17, 2009 "I just want to keep it the way it was," she said, adding that she remains close with Hugh Hefner but isn't really friends with his new...

• Report: Iconix Looking to Buy Playboy

  ShoppingBlog.com - Found Nov. 16, 2009 ... the former CEO of Freedom Communications Inc., replaced Christie Hefner, who had run Playboy since 1988 and is the daughter of Hugh Hefner.

• With Playboy sale, an icon bows to changing times

  Celebrity Mound - Found Nov. 14, 2009 ... life in this country ? and Hefner is very important in promoting that idea,? said Steven Watts, author of ?Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and...

• Hugh Hefner prepares to hang up his silk pyjamas

  First Post - Found Nov. 13, 2009 ... spin-off, Kendra), a Hefner biography (Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream by Steven Watts) and there's talk of a Hefner biopic... Playboy in talks to be sold - Reuters Playboy reportedly in talks to sell itself to Iconix - Denver Post UPDATE 1-Playboy in talks with Griffiths, Golden Gate - Reuters Playboy's appeal resides outside its long history of losses - Chicago Tribune Explore All

  First Post

• With Playboy sale, an icon bows to changing times

  Reuters - Found Nov. 13, 2009 ... good life in this country -- and Hefner is very important in promoting that idea," said Steven Watts, author of "Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and... Stephen Foley: Can Hefner bear to part with Playboy? - The Independent Playboy sale: an icon bows to changing times - ONE News With Playboy sale, an icon bows to changing times - Reuters Canada Hefner's reign at Playboy may be nearing end - Shanghai Daily Explore All

  MSN.co.in

• UPDATE 1-Playboy in talks with Griffiths, Golden Gate

  Interactive Investor International - Found Nov. 13, 2009 ... appointment of a new chief executive in June, when Scott Flanders replaced Christie Hefner, the daughter of the magazine's founder Hugh Hefner. Playboy in Talks to Be Sold - ABC News Investor Group Also Said to Eye Playboy - New York Times Report: Playboy in Talks to Be Sold - NewsMax.com Stock futures rise on Disney profit - MSN Money Explore All

• Report: Playboy in talks to be sold

  MSNBC - Found Nov. 12, 2009 ... a buyer since Scott Flanders became CEO in June, replacing long-time head Christie Hefner, the daughter of Hugh Hefner.In the third quarter... Report: Playboy in Talks to Be Sold, Shares Jump - ABC News UPDATE 1-Playboy in talks with Iconix to sell itself-sources - Interactive Investor International Playboy's Stock Spikes on Takeover Talk - FOXNews.com Playboy Stock Surges on Report of Sale Talks - New York Times Explore All

  Huffington Post

• The New 'Girls Next Door' Makes Holly Madison "Mad"

  BuddyTV - Found Nov. 10, 2009 ... staple , does she feel above The Girls Next Door ?  That may just be the case.  Since she left Hugh Hefner's famous mansion, she's been busy...

• Hugh Hefner: Bunny Guy

  The Independent - Found Nov. 9, 2009 'Hugh Hefner's Playboy, 6 Volume' is a limited edition book (1,500 copies signed and numbered by Hugh Hefner) published by Taschen, £900 20th...

• Former Playboy CEO's 7 Tips for College Students

  ABC News - Found Nov. 9, 2009 ... and pictures taken with a Playboy icon: Christie Hefner. In 2008 Christie Hefner, the daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, announced she...

Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner on the Red Carpet for a Wounded Warrior Project benefit event at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, CA on May 16, 2009.
Born	Hugh Marston Hefner April 9, 1926 (1926-04-09) (age 83) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Known for	Editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises
Spouse(s)	Mildred Williams (m. 1949–1959) «start: (1949)–end+1: (1960)»"Marriage: Mildred Williams to Hugh Hefner" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Hefner) (divorced) Kimberley Conrad (m. 1989–present) «start: (1989)»"Marriage: Kimberley Conrad to Hugh Hefner" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Hefner)(Filed for divorce)
Children	Christie Hefner (born 1952) David Hefner (born 1955) Marston Hefner (born 1990) Cooper Hefner (born 1991)
Website Official website

Hugh Marston Hefner (born April 9, 1926), sometimes known simply as Hef, is an American magazine publisher, founder and chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises.¹ In 2003, Arena magazine listed him second on the "50 Most Powerful People in Porn" list.²

Early life

Hefner was born in Chicago, Illinois, the elder of two sons born to Grace Caroline Swanson (1895-1997) and Glenn Lucius Hefner (1896-1976), both teachers.³ He went to Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School, then served as a writer for a military newspaper in the U.S. Army from 1944-1946. He graduated in 1949 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he majored in psychology with a double minor in creative writing and art, and earned his degree in two and a half years. He also took a semester of graduate courses at Northwestern University, with a focus in sociology and U.S. sex laws.⁴

Working as a copywriter for Esquire, he left in January 1952 after being denied a $5 raise. In 1953, he lent his furniture for $600 and raised $8,000 from 45 investors - including $1,000 from his mother ("Not because she believed in the venture," he told E! in 2006. "But because she believed in her son") - to launch Playboy, which was initially going to be called Stag Party. The undated first issue, published in December 1953, featured Marilyn Monroe from her 1949 nude calendar shoot. Hefner, who never met Monroe, owns the crypt next to hers.⁵

Personal life

Hefner married Northwestern University student Mildred Williams in 1949. They had two children, Christie (born November 8, 1952) and David (born August 30, 1955).⁶ Before the wedding, Mildred confessed that she had had an affair while he was away in the Army; he called the admission "the most devastating moment of my life." A 2006 E! True Hollywood Story profile of Hefner revealed that Mildred allowed him to sleep with other women, out of guilt for her infidelity and in the hopes that it would preserve their marriage. They divorced in 1959.

Hefner remade himself as a bon vivant and man about town, a lifestyle he promoted in his magazine and two TV shows he hosted, Playboy's Penthouse (1959-1960) and Playboy After Dark (1969-1970). He admitted to being "'involved' with maybe eleven out of twelve months' worth of Playmates" during these years.⁷ Donna Michelle, Marilyn Cole, Lillian Müller, Patti McGuire, Shannon Tweed, Brande Roderick, Barbi Benton, Karen Christy, Sondra Theodore, and Carrie Leigh - who filed a $35 million alimony suit against him - were a few of his many partners. In 1971, he acknowledged that he experimented in bisexuality⁸ and moved from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Hefner posing with Karissa Shannon, Dasha Astafieva, and Kristina Shannon for Playboy's 55th Anniversary Party at One Sunset, West Hollywood, CA on December 12, 2008

Hefner had a minor stroke in 1985 at age 59. After re-evaluating his lifestyle, he made several changes. The wild, all-night parties were toned down significantly and in 1988, daughter Christie began to run the Playboy empire. The following year, he married Playmate of the Year Kimberley Conrad. The couple had two sons, Marston Glenn (born April 9, 1990) and Cooper Bradford (born September 4, 1991).⁹ The E! True Hollywood Story profile noted that the notorious Playboy Mansion had been transformed into a family-friendly homestead. After he and Conrad separated in 1998, Conrad moved into a house next door to the mansion.

Hefner then began to move an ever-changing coterie of young women into the Mansion, dating up to seven girls at once; among them, Brande Roderick, Izabella St. James, Tina Marie Jordan, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson. The reality television series The Girls Next Door depicted the lives of Madison, Wilkinson and Marquardt at the Playboy Mansion.¹⁰ In October 2008, all three girls made the choice to leave the mansion. Hefner was quick to rebound and as of 2009, Hefner is dating his new "Number One" girlfriend, Crystal Harris.¹¹ along with 20-year-old identical twin models Kristina and Karissa Shannon,¹². They will be taking the place of Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson in the sixth season of E!'s hit reality show The Girls Next Door, about life for Hefner's girlfriends living at the mansion. After an 11 year separation, Hefner filed for divorce from Conrad stating irreconcilable differences.¹³ Hefner has said that he only remained married to her for the sake of his children,¹⁴ and his youngest child had just turned 18.⁹

Hef is in talks about making a film about his life; production may start later in 2009.¹⁵

Politics and philanthropy

On June 4, 1963, he was arrested for selling obscene literature after an issue of Playboy featuring nude shots of Jayne Mansfield was released. A jury was unable to reach a verdict. His former secretary, Bobbie Arnstein, was found dead in a Chicago hotel room after an overdose of drugs in January 1975. Hefner called a press conference to allege that she had been driven to suicide by narcotics agents and federal officers. Hefner further claimed the government was out to get him because of Playboy's philosophy and its advocacy of more liberal drug laws.¹⁶¹⁷

The Hugh Hefner First Amendment Award was created by Christie Hefner "to honor individuals who have made significant contributions in the vital effort to protect and enhance First Amendment rights for Americans."

He has donated and raised money for the Democratic Party.¹⁸

After it was rejected by Esquire magazine in 1955, Hefner agreed to publish in Playboy Charles Beaumont's science fiction short story, "The Crooked Man," about straight men being persecuted in a world where homosexuality was the norm. After receiving angry letters to the magazine, Hefner wrote a response to criticism where he said, "If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society then the reverse was wrong, too." Hefner is portrayed as a gay rights pioneer in the documentary film, Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel.¹⁹

Hefner donated $100,000 to the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts to create a course called "Censorship in Cinema", and $2 million to endow a chair for the study of American film.²⁰

Both through his charitable foundation and individually, Hefner also contributes to charities outside the sphere of politics and publishing, throwing fundraiser events for Much Love Animal Rescue, as well as Generation Rescue,²¹ an autism campaign organization supported by Jenny McCarthy.

References

Further reading

• Watts, Steven (2008). Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-69059-7.
• Miller, Russell (1985). Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy. London: Corgi. ISBN 0-03-063748-1.
• St. James, Izabella (2006). Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion. Philadelphia: Running Press. ISBN 0-762-42739-6
• Hefner, Veronika and Jurij Toplak (2009). Hefner, Hugh. In: Vile, John R., Hudson, David L., and Schultz, David Andrew (Eds.). Encyclopedia of the First Amendment. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, p. 564.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hugh Hefner

• Profile of Hefner from Playboy Enterprises corporate site
• Hugh M. Hefner at the Internet Movie Database
• Hugh Hefner: The Ultimate Lifestyle Entrepreneur (About.com Entrepreneurs
• "Brilliant Careers: Hugh Hefner" (Salon.com, December 28, 1999)
• World Wrestling Entertainment interviews Hugh Hefner (March 14, 2007)