Hugh Hefner, the silk pyjamas-wearing founder of Playboy who helped steer nudity into the American mainstream, died Wednesday, the magazine announced. He was 91 years old.
Hefner, who in 1953 founded a trailblazing brand that would help usher in the 20th century’s shifting attitude towards sexuality, died of natural causes in his Beverly Hills home — the famed Playboy Mansion — according to a statement from Playboy Enterprises.
The consummate playboy outlived both the sexual revolution he fought for but also some of the famous buxom pin-ups to grace his groundbreaking magazine’s centre-fold.
A self-proclaimed master of marketing, Hefner’s skill for self-promotion made it impossible to untangle his image from his empire.
“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,” his son Cooper Hefner, Playboy Enterprise’s chief creative officer, said in a statement.
“He defined a lifestyle and ethos that lie at the heart of the Playboy brand, one of the most recognizable and enduring in history.”
Hefner married university classmate Mildred Williams in 1949, a union that would last 10 years and produce two children, Christie and David.
source:today.ng
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