Hugh Marston HefnerHugh Marston Hefner (1926–2017) was the founder of Playboy magazine and a champion of free speech, civil rights, and sexual freedom. After starting the publication from his kitchen in 1953, Hefner became a pioneering intellectual force that helped trnsform social and sexual mores in the United States, publishing leading writers including James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, and Jack Kerouac, as well as trailblazing interviews with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. and Fidel Castro. Read More Read Less