He has since become an icon for the hedonistic ideals associated with the periodical. He reportedly has an IQ of 150, and he has certainly been very adept at human management skills. He is also a charismatic and highly persuasive individual. He majored in philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During WWII he served in the U.S. Army.
Hefner has been married twice. The 1959 breakup of his first marriage to Millie Williams, whom he married in 1949, is believed to be linked to his commencing his Playboy empire. His daughter Christie Hefner, born in 1954, is from this marriage. Christie joined her father's editorial staff, and now holds the title of Chairperson of Playboy Enterprises. He also had a son, David.
He later married Playmate Kimberley Conrad in 1988. Conrad later became Playmate of the Year in 1989. This marriage broke up in 1998. The couple had two children?Marston, born 1990 and Cooper, born 1991. During this period, Hefner lived monogamously.
Hefner is known to have been involved with the following Playmates: the then 18-year-old Donna Michelle (PMOY 1964), Marilyn Cole (1971), Lillian Muller (1976), Patti McGuire (1977), Terri Welles (1981), and Brande Roderick (2001). Roderick lived openly with three other women, including two twin sisters. In 1997, Welles defeated a lawsuit launched by her former lover's empire when she used her name in connection with Playboy on a website that she created.
Other noteworthy attachments include Mary Warren (1964?68); Barbi Benton (1968?74); Karen Christy (1971?74); ex-Sunday school teacher Sandra Theodore (1974?81) and then 19-year-old Carrie Leigh (1983?87). The lattermost liaison ended with an attempted $35 million palimony lawsuit by Leigh against Hefner, which failed.
After his separation from Kimberley Conrad Hefner in 1999, Hefner began living with an ever-changing number of blonde women, whose ages range from 18 to 28. He told Vanity Fair magazine "And here's the surprise bit?it's what they want!" The actual nature of the relationship between Hefner and these women at his relatively advanced age is sometimes the subject of speculation. No children have come of these relationships -- a source of speculation for many. The E! reality television series The Girls Next Door in 2005, chronicles Hefner's three most recent girlfriends, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson. The three all spend time with Hefner, though Madison shares his bed at night and appears to be the most "involved" with Hefner.
Hefner purchased the crypt in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California beside Marilyn Monroe stating that he wishes to be interred next to her.
The idea of Playboy sprung from Hefner while he was in college. The original name for the magazine came from deciding that his "baby" should have the name he "knew he was himself".
Before becoming a publishing magnate, Hefner was a copywriter for Esquire magazine.
The Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards were created by daughter Christie in 1979, "to honor individuals who have made significant contributions in the vital effort to protect and enhance First Amendment rights for Americans," to quote from Playboy.
--Wikipedia
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