Hugh Hefner Cause of Death, How Much Did Crystal Hefner Receive When Hugh Died?

By Vaibhavi On Nov 28, 2022

Hugh Hefner was a well-known American entrepreneur for founding Playboy magazine. In September 2017, Hugh Hefner passed away with a net worth of $50 million.

The native of Chicago began his career as a writer for Esquire before mortgaging his furniture and taking out a loan to launch his own magazine, Playboy. The first edition was published in 1953 and featured images of Marilyn Monroe taken around five years prior.

Cause of Death

Now, E! News is aware of the cause of the Playboy mogul’s death. According to the 91-year-death-old’s certificate, he died due to cardiac arrest and respiratory failure.

According to the death certificate, Hefner was recently diagnosed with E. coli and septicemia (a severe blood infection), which contributed to his declining health and eventual fatality. We discovered that E. coli was very resistant to antibiotics.

The death certificate also shows that Hefner passed away on September 27 at 5:06 p.m. and that he was still married to Crystal Hefner at the time of his passing.

In actuality, the playmate did not speak publicly about the loss of her husband until quite recently.

Crystal was cited in People magazine as saying, “I haven’t been able to write most people back to thank them for their condolences.” “I am heartbroken. I am still in disbelief.”

She also disclosed that Hefner was interred at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery alongside Marilyn Monroe, the first Playboy cover model. In 1992, he paid $75,000 for the tomb.

“We laid him to rest on Saturday,” she remarked. “He has arrived at the location where he always thought he would spend eternity.”

Early Life of Hugh Hefner

Hugh Hefner was born on April 9, 1926, in Chicago, Illinois. He was Glenn Lucius Hefner and Grace Caroline Hefner’s first child. They were from Nebraska and worked as a teacher and a certified public accountant, respectively.

Keith is his only younger sibling. Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School were attended by Hefner. Hugh served in the United States Army from 1944 to 1946 as a writer for a military newspaper. 1949 was Hefner’s year of graduation from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a double minor in Creative Writing and Art in just two and a half years. He did one semester of graduate school in Sociology at Northwestern but dropped out.

Career

Copywriter at Esquire Magazine.

In 1952, Hefner was a copywriter at Esquire magazine. He quit his work after his request for a $5 raise was denied. The following year, he acquired a $600 mortgage loan and raised $8,000 from investors, including $1,000 from his mother, in order to start Playboy, the renowned gentleman’s magazine (initially, he was going to call the magazine Stag Party.)

Almost exactly a year after his resignation from Esquire, the inaugural issue was published in December 1953. Marilyn Monroe’s naked 1949 calendar photo shoot was featured on the initial cover and centrefold. Over 50,000 copies were sold at a price of fifty cents each. The rejected science fiction story The Crooked Man by Charles Beaumont was published in the first issue of Esquire. The magazine was created in the Hyde Park kitchen of Hefner.

Hefner was the chief creative officer for Playboy Enterprises, the magazine’s publishing firm. Hugh’s magazine and the television shows he hosted, Playboy’s Penthouse from 1959 to 1960 and Playboy’s After Dark from 1969 to 1970, promoted an extravagant way of life.

Hefner was jailed in June 1963 for spreading obscene materials after publishing a Playboy issue with nude photographs of Jane Mansfield in bed with a guy. The result of the trial was a jury deadlock.

During the civil rights movement, Hugh established “private key” groups with diverse racial compositions. In 1966, Hefner sent Alex Haley (a black man) to meet George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party.

Rockwell had only agreed to be interviewed by Haley after receiving confirmation that he was not Jewish, and he was reportedly armed throughout the entire conversation. James Earl Jones and Marlon Brando played Haley and Rockwell, respectively, in an episode of Roots: The Next Generations from 1979.

Brando eventually received an Emmy for his portrayal of Rockwell. Haley interviewed Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 and 1966, respectively. Strangely, all three interviewers were slain in 1968.

The publication has continued to publish short stories by prominent authors such as Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Fleming, Chuck Palahniuk, Roald Dahl, Margaret Atwood, and Shel Silverstein, among others. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury was published in 1953 and serialised in the 1954 issue of Playboy.

Despite having achieved its heyday in the 1970s and shifting from a monthly to a quarterly publication in 2019, the magazine continues to enjoy popularity and circulation.

Playboy Mansion

From 1974 until his death in 2017, Hugh stayed in the 21,000-square-foot Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, California. In the 1970s, Hugh’s elaborate parties, attended by celebrities and socialites, made the house famous. The estate consists of 29 rooms, a wine cellar, a movie theatre, three zoos, tennis and basketball courts, a waterfall, and several pools.

Contrary to popular belief, Hugh did not own the renowned Playboy house. Playboy Enterprises owned the residence, and Hefner paid an annual fee to cover rent, food, and party expenses. In typical years, the annual rent was roughly $1 million. Including accommodations for Hefner’s live-in girlfriends.

In January 2016, Playboy Enterprises announced that the property would be sold for $200 million. There is a significant price… but there is only one Playboy Mansion! In June 2016, Daren Metropolous purchased the mansion for $110 million.

Daren, who was 32 years old when Hefner passed away, is the son of billionaire businessman C. Dean Metropoulos. His father is well-known for reviving companies such as Hostess, Bumble Bee Tuna, Pabst, and Chef Boyardee. As of April 2020, the Playboy Mansion is receiving extensive renovations.

Personal Life

Hefner married his high school sweetheart Mildred Williams in 1949. Mildred disclosed to Hefner prior to their wedding that she had an affair with another man when he was serving in the military. He remarked in public that the revelation was heartbreaking. According to reports, Mildred allowed him to sleep with other women because she was ashamed of her own adultery.

They split up in 1959. They have two children together, Christie and David. In accordance with the lifestyle he described in Playboy, Hef rebuilt himself as a “man about town” after his divorce. He admitted to having been affiliated with Playmates for eleven of twelve months.

In 1985, following a minor stroke at age 58, Hefner altered his lifestyle and wed Kimberly Conrad, 36 years his junior. Hefner had two sons, Cooper and Marston. They legally divorced in 2010, but had been separated for nearly a decade. His third wife, Crystal Harris (now Hefner), and he were together from 2012 until his death.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Much Did Crystal Hefner Receive When Hugh Died?

Hugh’s passing revealed that Crystal was not included in his will, although he did not leave her destitute. Hugh handed her a $5 million property in West Hollywood in 2013, and she supposedly received $7 million in cash, according to Distractify.

Why Did Hugh Hefner Always Wear Pyjamas?

In his final interview with PEOPLE before his death, Hefner stated that he wore the iconic pyjamas during his early days as a Playboy because they were “comfortable,” but he never dreamed that they would become a symbol of his image. He declared, “It was quite early [at the Chicago Mansion].”