Birth name: Hugh Marston Hefner
Birth place: Chicago, Illinois
Birthday: April 9, 1926
Profession: Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises, Editor-in-chief of
Playboy magazine
Most Recent Role: Himself on Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America
Hugh Hefner, well known as the Playboy is the founder of Playboy Enterprises. Born in Chicago he went to Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School. He then went to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, from where he graduated. There was also a time when he served in the U.S. army. But the guy was born to do something big and different. With that, in 1953 Hefner launched the first issue of Playboy that featured Marilyn Monroe from her 1949 nude calendar shoot. In order to launch his magazine Hugh lent his furniture for $600 and raised $ 8,000 from 45 investors. Thus, becoming the founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.
Coming to his personal life, Hugh married Mildred Williams, in 1949. Just before the marriage was about to take place, Mildred confessed to him that she had an affair while he was away in the Army. Hefner was totally taken aback by this revelation. And his wife, in order to reduce her guilt, allowed him to sleep with other woman. The couple divorced in 1959 and they had two children. In 1989, Hefner married Kimberley Conrad, who was announced as the playmate of the year. Hefner has two sons with her. Hefner and Conrad separated amicably in 1999.
Apart from his magazine, Hefner also made two shows, ‘Playboy’s Penthouse’ and ‘Playboy After Dark’. Hefner is famous for having many girlfriends at one time. There was a time, when he used to go around with eleven girls at a time. In 1971, Hefner admitted that he experimented in bisexuality. In 2005, once again he came with a reality series, ‘The Girls Next Door’, where he has seven official girlfriends. The reality series focuses on the lives of Madison, Marquardt, and Wilkinson at the Playboy Mansion. All the three girls are now dating other people and intend to leave the show. Hefner who is 80+ at the moment is dating 19 year old identical twin models Karissa and Kristina Shannon. Soon, we will get to see a film on his life that he is working on and which is likely to go under production later this year.
Hefner has always been in news, for good or for bad. Once he was arrested for selling obscene literature, after featuring nude shots of Jayne Mansfield, in one of the issues of Playboy. Hefner has also donated $100,000 to the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts in order to introduce a new course called “Censorship in Cinema”, and $2 million to endow a Chair for the study of American film.
Recently it was in news that Hefner is going through financial crisis and in order to overcome that he has agreed to sell tickets to his famous, celebrity-filled parties. Hefner enterprise has suffered losses due to decreasing Playboy circulation, decreasing stock value, and ventures that have yet to turn a profit.
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