What Really Happened With Hugh Hefner: When and How Did He Die?

Hugh Hefner didn't just fade away. For a man who spent decades in the blinding glare of the spotlight—silk pajamas on, pipe in hand, surrounded by a rotating cast of "Girls Next Door"—his final exit was surprisingly quiet. But it wasn't without its complications. If you’re looking for the short answer to when and how did Hugh Hefner die, he passed away on September 27, 2017, at the age of 91.

He died at the Playboy Mansion. Honestly, where else would he be?

It’s easy to look at the headlines from that week and think it was just "old age." At 91, the body usually just decides it’s had enough. But the death certificate told a much more clinical, and frankly grittier, story than the "peaceful passing" the PR team initially described.

The Official Cause: It Wasn’t Just "Natural Causes"

While the initial announcement from Playboy Enterprises said he died of natural causes, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health eventually released the details. It was a combination of things.

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The primary cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest. Basically, his heart stopped. But that wasn't the whole story. The certificate also noted respiratory failure, which usually happens when the lungs can't get enough oxygen into the blood.

But here is the part that surprised people: Hefner was battling a nasty, drug-resistant strain of E. coli.

The "Superbug" Factor

Apparently, about six days before he died, Hefner contracted a severe blood infection called septicemia. Sepsis is terrifying. It’s when your body’s immune system goes into overdrive to fight an infection and starts attacking its own organs. In Hefner's case, the E. coli causing the trouble was "highly resistant to antibiotics."

Think about that. One of the wealthiest men in the world, with access to the best doctors money could buy, was taken down by a bacteria that modern medicine couldn't touch. It's a sobering reminder that even the most "charmed" lives end with the same biological vulnerabilities we all share.

His Final Days at the Mansion

Hef hadn't been seen much in public for about a year before he died. He’d become increasingly frail.

Visitors to the Playboy Mansion in those final months described a vibe that was more "nursing home" than "high-end grotto party." Barbi Benton, one of his most famous former girlfriends, told People magazine that she had seen him six months before his death and was shocked by his health. He was using a walker. His memory was fading. He had a long-term back condition that made it nearly impossible to move without help.

He was bedridden for much of those last two years.

Despite the physical decline, his son Cooper insisted that Hef was still enjoying life. He was still watching classic movies every night. He was still surrounded by his family—his wife Crystal, and his children Christie, David, Marston, and Cooper.

The $75,000 Neighbor

If you want to talk about "branding" until the bitter end, you have to talk about where he’s buried.

Hefner is at the Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles. He’s not just anywhere in the cemetery, though. He is literally in the crypt right next to Marilyn Monroe.

He bought the spot back in 1992 for $75,000.

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Marilyn, of course, was the cover girl for the very first issue of Playboy in 1953. Hefner often credited her with the magazine's initial success, though they never actually met in person. People have mixed feelings about this. Some think it’s a poetic tribute to the woman who helped build his empire; others think it’s a bit "creepy" to follow a woman you didn't know into the afterlife by purchasing the plot next to her.

What happened to the Mansion?

There was a lot of confusion about what would happen to the Playboy Mansion after he died. Most people don't realize that Hefner didn't even own the house when he passed away.

He had sold it a year earlier, in 2016, for $100 million.

The buyer was Daren Metropoulos, a billionaire neighbor whose family owns Pabst Brewing Company. Part of the deal was a "life estate." This meant Hefner got to live there until he died, paying a symbolic $100 a year in rent. Once he was gone, the house officially belonged to Metropoulos.

By the time he died, the mansion was reportedly in pretty rough shape. Visitors talked about "shabby" carpets and a lingering smell of old dogs. It wasn't the sparkling palace shown on The Girls Next Door anymore. It was an old house with an old man inside.

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Key Takeaways for the Curious

If you’re trying to wrap your head around the end of the Playboy era, here are the nuts and bolts:

• Date of Death: September 27, 2017.
• Location: The Playboy Mansion, Holmby Hills, CA.
• Medical Cause: Cardiac arrest and respiratory failure, fueled by antibiotic-resistant E. coli and septicemia.
• The Burial: Next to Marilyn Monroe at Westwood Village Memorial Park.
• The Inheritance: While he was worth millions, much of the Playboy brand had already been sold or transitioned to his children and various charities.

Hefner lived a life that most people couldn't even imagine—a mix of high-society intellectualism and low-brow smut, all wrapped in a velvet robe. Whether you saw him as a civil rights advocate and a pioneer of the sexual revolution or a problematic relic of a bygone era, his death truly marked the end of an American epoch.

If you're interested in how his estate was settled or what the Mansion looks like today under its new ownership, looking into the 2016 sale agreement and the subsequent renovations by Metropoulos offers a fascinating glimpse into the literal dismantling of the Playboy legend.