Hugh Hefner was born to conservative Protestant parents. He attended school on the West Side of Chicago where he was involved with extracurricular activities and founded a school newpaper
Hef served in the Army from 1944 to 1946, and then stuided at the Chicago Art Institute before enrolling in the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. Hef graduated in two and one-half years by doubling up on classes. While in school we drew cartoons for the Daily Illini and edited the humor magazine Shaft, where he introduced a feature entitled Coed of the Month.
Hef worked a variety of jobs before working as a promotion copyright editor at Esquire. Hugh asked for a $5 raise when the magazine moved its offices to New York, but was turned down so he quit.
In 1953 he produced the first issue of Playboy magazine on his kitchen table in a South Side apartment. The issue was on newsstands in December and sold more than 50,000 copies.
Playboy Enterprises is now run by daughter Christie, although Hefner still is the figurehead for the company. After settling down with 1989 Playmate of the Year Kimberly Conrad in the late 80's and early 90's, Hef is now reportedly dating several women, while continuing to throw lavish parties at the Playboy Mansion in southern California.
* Has a subspecies of Cottontail rabbit named in his honor (Sylvilagus palustris hefneri).
* He is the sponsor for the letter 'Y' in the famous Hollywood Sign in Hollywood. In 1978 he also threw a 'Playboy Party' at the mansion in order to raise money for the renovation of the sign.
* He has made numerous cameo appearances in film, including Beverly Hills Cop II and Mel Brooks's film History of the World, Part I. He has also made guest appearances on the television series The Bernie Mac Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, Family Guy, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Saturday Night Live, Sex and the City, and The Simpsons. He also appeared in the Weezer music video "Beverly Hills," which was filmed at the Playboy Mansion.
* Hefner makes regular appearances on his girlfriends' reality TV show The Girls Next Door, which is filmed at the Playboy Mansion.
* Hefner was parodied by Stan Lee in the 2008 film Iron Man.
Hefner has donated millions of dollars to the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. In 1992, he gave USD $100,000 to create a course, Censorship in Cinema; in 1995 he donated $1.5 million to endow the Hugh M. Hefner Chair for the Study of American Film; and in 2007 he donated $2 million for a central exhibition space in the school's new headquarters complex. <8 >
An urban legend persists about Hefner and the Playmate of the Month related to markings on the front covers of the magazine. From 1955 to 1979 (except for a six month gap in 1976), the "P" in Playboy had a number of stars printed in or around the letter. The legend claims that this was either a rating that Hefner gave to the Playmate according to how attractive she was, the number of times that Hefner had slept with her, or how good she was in bed. Another rumor was that if the stars were inside the "P", Hefner had slept with the Playmate, while if they were outside, he didn't sleep with her. In reality, the stars, which ranged in number between zero and twelve, were solely used to indicate the domestic or international advertising region for that particular printing. <
