Hugh Hefner Net Worth 2017, Cause of Death: Playboy Publisher Died at Age 91 of 'Natural Causes'
Hugh Hefner, the founder of the Playboy brand and men's magazine that spearheaded the sexual liberalism movement in the 1960s, died on Wednesday, Sep. 27. Playboy Enterprises stated that he peacefully passed away at the age of 91, of "natural causes."
Hefner died an extremely wealthy man, with an estimated net worth of about $50 million by the time he died, as Heavy notes. Business Insider has this figure pegged at $110 million, however, with at least $45 million in currency and liquid assets, as shared by Wealth-X, a market research company.
Even this massive wealth is a small fraction of what he was worth during the heyday of his Playboy empire, however.
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Bootstrapping Playboy by himself in 1953, Hefner just had around $8,000 cobbled together from loans from friends and families and the bank. The very first issue of the men's magazine went out to newsstands in December of that year and went on to sell 50,000 from the first print.
Almost two decades later, Playboy has become an establishment that sells its namesake magazine at 7 million copies a month. Hefner himself was worth about $200 Million at the time, with the company earning the equivalent of $70 million per year adjusted for inflation, according to Gazette Review.
His success aside, Hefner gained notoriety for his insatiable appetite for relations with young women, especially blondes. He kept for himself as many as seven women at one time in the now-iconic Playboy Mansion, according to Reuters. He would carry on his hedonistic habits well into his 80s.
Playboy's photos, once deemed indecent enough to put Hefner in trouble with the law, has become relatively tame compared to the more explicit material that is commonplace today. Coupled with a lack of strategy for online content, Playboy can now be described as winding down.
The Playboy Mansion itself was sold for $100 Million last year in August, on the condition that Hefner can stay until his last day.
