Wikipedia gives his birth year as 1926:
“Hugh Marston “Hef” Hefner (born April 9, 1926) is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.”
I don’t believe it. I know what I read and heard from his own mouth.
See if you can find a copy of the 20th anniversary edition and read the interview for yourself. Then you can correct me if my memory is faulty. 
Vanity, I suppose. Why do any of us shave a few years off our real age? 
Here are the sources to which I refer:
I tell people I am twenty years *older *than I am. And they *still *don’t tell me I look good for my age.
Wow! :eek:
My age finally caught up with my looks when I was in my late 20s. Then people started thinking I was younger than I am.
I’m 57 and regularly pass for 45. I don’t mind at all…
Hef’s age at Playboy’s startup has always given as 27. It’s not a new thing. I haven’t listened to the interview but if he said he was 50, he was probably just rounding up. I’ve been known to say I’m pushing some decade year myself even though I may still have a few years to go before I get there.
As far as getting back with Crystal goes, who knows? She probably found that life with Dr. Phil’s boy offered neither the freedom nor money she enjoyed with Hefner. I suspect also that Dr. Phil himself was less than thrilled about the relationship and did all he could to make it fail. His other son is married to a former Playmate (one of the Damm triplets), but she didn’t come with the same baggage that Crystal did. As far as Hef goes, if there’s any face-saving going on that’s probably where it is.
I wish I had my old copy of the 20th anniversary edition.* I remember him saying something like “The editor at Esquire told me I wasn’t a good ‘company man’ for even thinking of a raise. I was 35 then, and I realized that if I stayed there I’d be a ‘company man’ for the rest of my life.”
In subsequent interviews, BTW, he’s altered some of the details from his original version of events. Whether this is the result of memory lapses or deliberate reinventions of himself, I can’t say.
*The one with the front-and-back centerfold of Nancy Cameron. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! 
Damn.
The only way I would marry Hef is if it includes in the agreement that he moves out of the damned Playboy mansion, gives up the swinging lifestyle and we move out of the US - maybe onto a yacht like Onassis. And the minimum age of all employees in the household we live in is like 40.
[actually, I don’t care how rich the old fuck is, I couldn’t see myself marrying him for any about of settlement. Damn he is creepy:eek:]
He’s shaving what… 8 years?
(Comparing your guess of 1918 vs. wiki’s 1926.)
When your 94, why would you need or want people to think you were 86? 
I have to feel that Hefner’s birthdate is accurate. He graduated from high school and joined the army in 1944, which would be consistent with a 1926 birthdate. And it would be strange if he had been born a few years earlier but was somehow ignored during WWII if he had been eligible for military service at the time.
It may have been the opposite case. Hefner may have added a few years to his age later on when he was starting his own business and wanted people to think he was more experienced.
I read the interview too and remember him making that comment, but I don’t recall his stated age at that time. I suspect though that he said he was 25, not 35. Perhaps another Doper who still has a copy or suscribes to Playboy Online could look it up for us. :).
And yeah, that cover was pretty cool! 
OK, fine. I’m going to bed now. Someone out there MUST have a copy of the 20th anniversary edition, so PLEASE find the passage I quoted and either confirm or refute my recollection on that basis.
Even if I’m wrong, I assure you I will appreciate it. 
That’s possible, I suppose. But why would he say he was 50 on national TV in 1970? Does David Frost have a website with transcripts available?
I know he served in the Army, but couldn’t tell you the year he enlisted. As I recall, he wasn’t shipped overseas and served in some kind of Special Services unit.
Anyway, I’m off to bed. Nightey-night!
I think it’s pretty bad form to label Hefner as “pathetic” and “creepy” just because he’s gotten old. He’s been enormously successful during his lifetime and he played a part in the liberalization of our society. He also spent a lot of his money on cultural development, like comedy. His work helped a lot of young artists develop their craft in the period from the 1950s to the 1970s. Hefner’s the reason that there’s still a “Hollywood” sign. Now you might not think any of this is really important, and sure he has his flaws and vanities – but who doesn’t? All that has really changed about him is that he’s old now. And it’s fairly mean-minded to hold that against him.
Your memory is faulty. There have been dozens of biographies of Hefner and Playboy. None that I’ve ever read have questioned his age. Every one gives the same birthdate, April 9, 1926, and an age of 26 when he started planning Playboy in 1952.
Your “cites” contain no text whatsoever, so I don’t accept them as cites at all. However, I just pulled a couple of books off my shelves: Esky: The Early Years at Esquire by Hugh Merrill and Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy by Russell Miller. Both give his age and an account of the founding. Neither is a new book, either, so his age has been recorded and public for a long time.
Not even when he likely comes with the full suite of venereal and blood bourne diseases to sweeten the pot?
I don’t think anyone begrudges him his 86 years. But there comes a point where is nothing BUT creepy for older gentleman to be wooing young girls. I mean young-enough-to-be-his-great-granddaughter young.
We can respect his accomplishments and contributions and still get a sense of ‘eeewwwwwwwww’.
This is really just a personal prejudice. If they’re both adults there’s no actual reason to act like there’s something wrong with it.
That’s only your opinion vs. a lot of other people’s opinion, Ascenray.