Hugh Marston Hefner is an American adult magazine publisher, businessman, and a well-known playboy. Hefner is a Chicago, Illinois native and a former journalist for Esquire. Hugh Hefner is also a World War II veteran. He is best known for being the founder and chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises.A self-made millionaire, he is now worth over $43 million. Hefner is also a political activist and philanthropist active in several causes and public issues.
Hugh Hefner working as a copywriter for Esquire, he left in January 1952 after being denied a $5 raise. In 1953, he mortgaged his furniture, generating a bank loan of $600, and raised $8,000 from 45 investors, including $1,000 from his mother (“Not because she believed in the venture,” he told E! in 2006, “but because she believed in her son.”), to launch Playboy, which was initially going to be called Stag Party. The undated first issue, published in December 1953, featured Marilyn Monroe from her 1949 nude calendar shoot and sold over 50,000 copies. (Hefner, who never met Monroe, bought the crypt next to hers at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.
Hugh Hefner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television and has made several movie appearances as himself. In 2009, he received a “worst supporting actor” nomination for a Razzie award for his performance in Miss March.