Playboy recently broke the hearts of many when they announced that they would no longer be featuring nudity in their magazine. It's going to be sad to say good bye to all the beautiful babes in the pages of Playboy. But at least the legacy of the magazine will live on thanks to these women who were once named Playmate of the Year.
1953 Marilyn Monroe Technically not “Playmate of the Year” for 1953 since they had not begun to use the moniker until 1957, but we weren’t about to do a post of Playboy’s covers and not include the “Blonde Bombshell.”
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1957 Lisa Winters The first PMOTY, thought they did not begin to award it annually until 1959.
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1959 Joyce Nizzari
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1960 Ellen Stratton
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1961 Linda Gamble
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1962 Christa Speck
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1963 June Cochran
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1964 Donna Michelle
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1965 Jo Collins
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1966 Allison Parks
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1967 Lisa Baker
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1968 Angela Dorian
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1969 Connie Kreski
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1970 Claudia Jennings
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1972 Liv Lindeland
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1973 Marilyn Cole
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1974 Cyndi Wood
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1977 Patti McGuire
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1978 Debra Jo Fondren
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1979 Monique St. Pierre
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1980 Dorothy Stratten
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1981 Terri Welles
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1982 Shannon Tweed
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1983 Marianne Gravatte
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1984 Barbara Edwards
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1985 Karen Velez
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1986 Kathy Shower
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1987 Donna Edmondson
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1988 India Allen
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1989 Kimberley Conrad
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1991 Lisa Matthews
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1992 Corinna Harney
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1993 Anna Nicole Smith
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1994 Jenny McCarthy
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1995 Julie Lynn Cialini
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1996 Stacy Sanches
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1997 Victoria Silvstedt
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1998 Karen McDougal
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1999 Heather Kozar
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2000 Jodi Ann Paterson
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2001 Brande Roderick
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2002 Dalene Kurtis
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2003 Christina Santiago No that isn’t 2003’s PMOTY Christina Santiago on the cover. It created a controversy when they did it but in 2003 Playboy’s editors decided to put “celebrity” Sarah Kozer from reality show Joe Millionaire instead. They chose to keep the PMOTY honor a mystery with the answer inside.
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2004 Carmella DeCesare 2004’s cover continued the trend of hiding the PMOTY inside in favor of a celebrity on the cover. This would continue off and on for a few more years.