Playboy's Founder, Hugh Hefner, Dies at 91

Hefner's death was announced by Playboy Enterprises, which said that he passed away peacefully at home, from natural causes.

He was born on 9 April 1926 in Chicago.

Hefner joined the U.S. Army as a writer for a military newspaper in 1944. Following World War II, he became a promotional copywriter at Esquire magazine, where he began toying with the idea of publishing a men's magazine.

And in December 1953, Hefner published the debut issue of Playboy.

For the longest time, Playboy remained the most successful men’s magazine in the world.

The company Hefner founded branched into a movie, cable and digital production, sold its own line of clothing and jewellery and opened clubs, resorts and casinos.

The Playboy brand, however, has faded over the years, and by 2015 the magazine’s circulation had dropped to about 800,000.

The only men’s magazines that outsold it was Maxim, which was founded in 1995.

He claimed to have slept with more than 1,000 women and has credited the impotence drug Viagra with maintaining his libido.

His net worth, which at the peak of Playboy was reportedly over USD200 million, was reduced to an estimated USD50 million at the time of his death.

It was still the most expensive home ever sold in Los Angeles and included the condition that Hefner would be allowed to remain in the residence for the remainder of his life.

According to a report in CNN, Playboy quoted Hefner saying in 1974, that "If you don't encourage healthy sexual expression in public, you get unhealthy sexual expression in private. If you attempt to suppress sex in books, magazines, movies and even everyday conversation, you aren't helping to make sex more private, just more hidden. You're keeping sex in the dark. What we've tried to do is turn on the lights."

Hefner, who was also arrested in 1963 on charges that Playboy violated obscenity laws, told CNN, "I've never thought of Playboy, quite frankly, as a sex magazine. I always thought of it as a lifestyle magazine in which sex was one important ingredient."

Cooper, who is the chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises, said in a statement:

“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.”