Playboy founder dies aged 91

The famous founder of the international adult magazine Playboy, Hugh Hefner, has died at the age of 91.

The death of Hefner was made known by the Playboy Enterprises Inc, which said the 91-year-old passed away peacefully at home, from natural causes.

In his reaction, Cooper Hefner, his son, said he would be "greatly missed by many".

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Cooper paid tribute to his father's exceptional and impactful life as a media and cultural pioneer, calling him an advocate for free speech, civil rights and sexual freedom.

CAREER

Hugh Hefner began publishing Playboy magazine in his kitchen at home in 1953. Playboy became the largest-selling men's magazine in the world, shifting seven million copies a month at its peak.

The trailblazing magazine, Playboy, helped make nudity respectable in mainstream publications and made him a multi-millionaire. It spawned a business empire that included casinos and nightclubs.

Hefner became famous for his silk pyjama-clad appearances, hence, becoming famous for his hedonistic lifestyle, dating and marrying Playboy models.

He was famous for throwing huge parties at his luxurious mansions in his later years as he grew to live with more than six Playboy mansion models.

EARLY YEARS

Hugh Hefner was born into a strict Methodist family in Chicago. He rebelled, spectacularly, producing the first issue of Playboy in 1953.

The first issue of the widely acclaimed magazine was adorned with Marilyn Monroe as its first centrefold the magazine was an instant hit.

Its huge sales were driven by glossy colour pictures of nude "playmates" but it also developed a reputation for fine writing - Norman Mailer, Kingsley Amis and Ray Bradbury - were among its contributors.

LIFESTYLE

Hugh Hefner lived the lifestyle portrayed in his Playboy magazine. His Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, where he died surrounded by friends, epitomised an adolescent's dream.

Hefner claimed to have slept with more than 1,000 women and has a reality TV show that has become more popular than any nude or sex tape.

He was attacked by feminists - accused of reducing women to sexual toys - but he styled himself as the godfather of the sexual revolution.