Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner dies aged 91

Hugh Hefner, the iconic founder of Playboy magazine, has died aged 91.

Playboy Magazine was founded by Hefner more than 60 years ago as an upscale men's magazine that featured nude images of famous women, as well as emerging models, actresses and singers.

“Hugh M Hefner, the American icon who in 1953 introduced the world to Playboy magazine and built the company into one of the most recognisable American global brands in history, peacefully passed away today from natural causes at his home, The Playboy Mansion, surrounded by loved ones,” Playboy Enterprises has said in a statement.

Hugh Hefner is survived by his wife Crystal Harris and his four children from previous relationships.

In 2011 he told The Hollywood Reporter: “Could I be in a better place and happier than I am today? I don't think so. In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined a sweeter life.”

‘Oomph’

Born on 9 April to strict Methodist parents in 1926, he served two years in the army during World War II before finding a job at Esquire as a copywriter.

By 1953 he had saved US$8,000 with which to put the first issue of Playboy together.

Published in December that year, the cover featured Marilyn Monroe, along with a nude picture of her as the centrefold which Hefner had purchased to add some "oomph". The issue sold more than 50,000 copies.

The nude images of women would be placed alongside in-depth interviews with high profile actors, artists and politicians, with literary articles, fiction and non-fiction, sourced by the publication's first literary editor Auguste Comte Spectorsky.

American Icon and Playboy Founder, Hugh M. Hefner passed away today. He was 91. #RIPHef pic.twitter.com/tCLa2iNXa4

— Playboy (@Playboy) September 28, 2017

Writers such as Jack Kerouac, Vladimir Nabokov and Margaret Atwood saw some of their short fiction featured in its pages, and the magazine published important interviews with figures including Martin Luther King Jr. and Miles Davis.

Hefner made several cameos in film and TV, including Sex and the City, and The House Bunny starring Anna Faris as a former Playboy Bunny who suddenly finds herself homeless.

“Much of my life has been like an adolescent dream of an adult life,” Hefner told The Times in 1992.

“If you were still a boy, in almost a Peter Pan kind of way, and could have just the perfect life that you wanted to have, that's the life I invented for myself.”