Dr. Marvin A. Klein, a prominent Sacramento physician who helped establish American River Hospital and was the father of former Playboy model and actress Barbi Benton, has died at age 87.
He died Oct. 12 of cancer at his Carmichael home, said his son, Richard.
Dr. Klein began his career in the Army Medical Corps in the Philippines during World War II. He later joined the Air Force and practiced obstetrics and gynecology at McClellan Air Force Base. In 1955, he started a private practice amid the postwar growth of suburban Sacramento.
He opened Country Club Medical Center on Butano Drive and helped found American River Hospital in Carmichael. He served as American River president and chief of staff and was a past president of the Sacramento society of obstetrical and gynecological physicians.
He was an outgoing man who "loved to be with people and had a good rapport with patients," said Dr. Robert Zeff, a longtime business partner. Calls from women going into labor often interrupted family evenings, and Dr. Klein often said "he delivered 20,000 babies," his son said.
"Every time I would go out with him, at least two or three people would recognize him," his son said. "I think he'd wait until rush hour to go out so patients would see him."
Many also knew Dr. Klein as the father of a former Rio Americano High School student and Miss Teenage Sacramento who became a famous cover girl.
His daughter, Barbara, was a longtime girlfriend of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. She changed her name to Barbi Benton and posed in his magazine. Later she became a regular on the TV show "Hee Haw" and had a career as an actress and recording artist.
Dr. Klein "wanted to go hide" when he first saw his daughter nude, Benton said. But when all of his friends began asking him to get her to autograph their copies of Playboy, "Dad finally decided it wasn't so bad," she said. He also "liked Hef very much" and supported her singing and acting careers.
"He was very proud of me," Benton said. "His friends all tell me he used to beam when he talked about me."
Marvin Adolph Klein was born in 1922 in Montreal and reared in New York by a dentist and an artist.
He earned a bachelor's degree at New York University and a medical degree at University of Geneva in Switzerland. He had two children with his wife of 55 years, Helen, who died in 2002.
Dr. Klein and his wife owned a kiwi ranch in Chico and started Emerald C Kiwi Fruit Corp. An avid reader, he enjoyed traveling, snow- skiing trips with his young children and telling jokes to help put his patients at ease.
"He had so many patients, and they all loved him," his daughter said. "A lot of times if somebody recognizes me as Barbi Benton, they say, 'Your father delivered me.' "
Call The Bee's Robert D. Dávila, (916) 321-1077.
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