During a conversation with Gloria Steinem in 1970, Hefner dismissed feminism as “foolishness,” and Steinem told him: “What Playboy doesn’t know about women could fill a book. Hefner became the unofficial spokesman for the sexual revolution that permeated the 1960s and ‘ 70s, and he was both lauded and criticized by feminists of the era, with some accusing him of objectifying women while others said he liberated and empowered them. The house sold for $100 million in August with the provision that Hefner be allowed to live there the rest of his life. Hefner also made cameos in several movies, most recently 2008’s The House Bunny, which told the fictional story of a Playboy “bunny,” played by Anna Faris, who has been kicked out of the Playboy Mansion, the famous real-life, 22,000-square-foot house in Los Angeles where Hefner lived for more than four decades and where he hosted famously decadent parties that attracted celebrities A-list through D. He had been a sought-after guest on TV shows as far back as 1969 when he played a Control agent on an episode of Get Smart, and more recently he appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage and Sex and the City, as well as in animated shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy. Hefner also co-produced hundreds of Playboy-branded videos and a few feature films, such as Roman Polanski’s Macbeth and Monty Python’s first film, And Now for Something Completely Different, both released in 1971. “My father lived an exceptional and impactful life as a media and cultural pioneer and a leading voice behind some of the most significant social and cultural movements of our time in advocating free speech, civil rights and sexual freedom,” read a statement from Hefner’s son, Cooper Hefner, chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises. Hugh Hefner, who parlayed $8,000 in borrowed money in 1953 to create Playboy, the hot-button media empire renowned for a magazine enriched with naked women and intelligent interviews just as revealing, died of natural causes Wednesday at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.

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