R.I.P.: Playboy Hugh Hefner

Hugh Hefner

Hugh M. Hefner, the American icon who in 1953 introduced the world to Playboy magazine and built the company into one of the most recognizable American global brands in history, peacefully passed away Wednesday from natural causes at his home, The Playboy Mansion, surrounded by loved ones. 

He was 91 years old.

Starting from his kitchen table 64 years ago, Hefner's uncompromising vision drove the creation of not just the iconic and groundbreaking magazine, but what has become one of the world's most enduring and recognizable brands.  In the process, Playboy became the largest-selling and most influential men's magazine in the world, spawning a number of successful global businesses. To this day, the magazine is published in more than 20 countries around the world and products featuring the company's trademarks drive more than $1 billion in sales annually.

"My father lived an exceptional and impactful life as a media and cultural pioneer and a leading voice behind some of the most significant social and cultural movements of our time in advocating free speech, civil rights and sexual freedom. He defined a lifestyle and ethos that lie at the heart of the Playboy brand, one of the most recognizable and enduring in history. He will be greatly missed by many, including his wife Crystal, my sister Christie and my brothers David and Marston and all of us at Playboy Enterprises," said Cooper Hefner, Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises. 

After serving in the Army, attending college and working for number of years in the magazine publishing industry, Hefner became convinced that there was a market for an upscale men's magazine.  By putting up his furniture as collateral for a loan and borrowing the rest from family and friends, Mr. Hefner published the very first issue of Playboy in December of 1953.  The magazine was an instant sensation.

From the very start, Playboy was about more than just the beautiful women featured in its pages. Hefner took a progressive approach not only to sexuality and humor, but also to literature, politics and culture. Within its pages, Playboy published fiction by such writers as Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, John Updike, Ian Fleming, Joseph Heller, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Margaret Atwood, Jack Kerouac and Kurt Vonnegut.

The now standard-setting "Playboy Interview" debuted in 1962 when frequent contributor Alex Haley interviewed jazz legend Miles Davis. Mr. Haley's Playboy interviews, which are still important reads for cultural historians, also included Malcolm X (1963), Martin Luther King (1965), and perhaps most famously, George Lincoln Rockwell (1966), the founder of the American Nazi Party.