Hugh Hefner

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Hugh Hefner

American publisher and entrepreneur

Also known as: Hugh Marston Hefner

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Dec 9, 2024 • Article History

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”

On the Web:: NPR - Hugh Hefner on a Life Less Ordinary (Dec. 09, 2024)

See all related content

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, 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.