Ben Stein

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Ben Stein
Image:Ben Stein.jpg
Ben Stein speaks to students at Miami University in Oxford, OH in 2003.
Birth name Benjamin Jeremy Stein
Born November 25 1944 (1944-11-25) (age 65)
Washington, D.C., United States
Spouse(s) Alexandra Denman (1968 - 1974; 1977 - present)
Official site http://www.benstein.com

Benjamin Jeremy Stein (born November 25, 1944) is an American writer and commentator, Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian, and game show host. He was also formerly a lawyer, law professor, and White House speechwriter. In recent years he has become an outspoken advocate for the Creationist/Intelligent Design movement. He is the son of noted economist and writer Herbert Stein.[1] His sister, Rachel, is also a writer.

Contents

[edit] Early years

Ben Stein was born to American Jewish parents in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the Woodside Forest neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland. He graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in 1961 along with classmate journalist Carl Bernstein; actress Goldie Hawn (class of 1963) was two years behind. Actor Sylvester Stallone was a schoolmate at Montgomery Hills Junior High School. He went on to major in economics at Columbia University's Columbia College, where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi and the Philolexian Society. After graduating with honors from Columbia in 1966, Stein went to Yale Law School where he graduated as the class valedictorian in 1970.

[edit] Legal and academic career

Ben Stein was first a poverty lawyer in New Haven, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. before becoming a trial lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission.[2]

Stein's first teaching stint was as an adjunct professor, teaching political and social content of mass culture at American University in Washington, D.C., and then at University of California, Santa Cruz. He also held classes on political and civil rights from the United States Constitution at UC Santa Cruz.

At Pepperdine University in Southern California, Stein taught libel law and United States securities law and its ethical aspects. He was a professor of law at Pepperdine University Law School, from about 1990 to 1997.[3]

In addition, Stein is very interested in American Civil War history, and is a strong supporter of the Civil War Preservation Trust.

[edit] Writing career

A frequent writer, Ben Stein has authored books on several topics, including economics. He writes a regular column in the conservative magazine The American Spectator. He has also written for numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Penthouse, Los Angeles Magazine and Barron's Magazine, where his discussion of the Michael Milken Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond situation, as well as the ethical dimensions of management buyouts, attracted heavy US national attention in the 1980s and 1990s. He currently writes a regular column for the Sunday New York Times Business Section and for Yahoo! Finance online.

[edit] Political career

Ben Stein began his political career as a speechwriter and lawyer for United States President Richard Nixon, and later for President Gerald Ford. Stein was one of many public figures speculated to have been Deep Throat. As far back as May 3, 1976, Time magazine had speculated on the possibility of Stein being Deep Throat.

Stein responded over the years by not only denying he was Deep Throat, but by going further and accusing journalist Bob Woodward of falsifying the famous secret source. In the May 14–21, 1998, edition of the Philadelphia City Paper Stein is quoted saying, "Oh, I don't think there was a Deep Throat. That was a fake. I think there were several different sources and some they just made up." [4] After Mark Felt's identity as Deep Throat was revealed, Stein stated that Nixon would have prevented the rise to power of the Khmer Rouge if he had not been forced to resign. For his actions leading to that resignation, Stein said "If there is such a thing as kharma, if there is such a thing as justice in this life or the next, Mark Felt has bought himself the worst future of any man on this earth. And Bob Woodward is right behind him, with Ben Bradlee bringing up the rear. Out of their smug arrogance and contempt, they hatched the worst nightmare imaginable: genocide." [5]

Some have called Stein a "Nixon apologist" due to his fervent defense of Nixon's legacy. As recently as 2005, in the American Spectator, Stein said "Nixon was a peacemaker. He was a lying, conniving, covering-up peacemaker. He was not a lying, conniving drug addict like JFK, a lying, conniving war-starter like LBJ, a lying, conniving seducer like Clinton—a lying, conniving peacemaker."

Stein is a vocal supporter of the Republican Party[citation needed]. He is a pro-life activist and was given a Pro-Life Award in 2003 by the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund.[6]

In 2007, Stein chastised the St. Paul, MN police as well as the GOP leadership for their response to the Larry Craig scandal. Stein said that Craig's sexuality should be a non-issue: "A party that believes in individual rights should be rallying to his defense, not making him walk the plank." [7]

According to the Associated Press, in 2007, Stein crossed party lines and donated $2,000 to the U.S. Senate campaign of liberal Al Franken .

[edit] Books authored

Stein's book titles to date (7 fiction, 20 nonfiction) include:

Year Title ISBN
1978 DREEMZ
On the Brink: A Novel ISBN 0-345-27650-7
1979 The View from Sunset Boulevard: America as brought to you by the people who make television
1982 Ludes
1985 Financial Passages
1986 Her Only Sin ISBN 0-312-90636-6
1988 Hollywood Days, Hollywood Nights: the Diary of a Mad Screenwriter
1992 A License to Steal: the Untold Story of Michael Milken and the Conspiracy to Bilk the Nation ISBN 0671742728
2002 How to Ruin Your Life ISBN 1-56170-974-3
2003 How to Ruin Your Love Life ISBN 1-4019-0240-5
2004 How to Ruin Your Financial Life ISBN 1-4019-0241-3
Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do About It ISBN 1-4019-0333-9
2005 Yes, You Can Be a Successful Income Investor: Reaching for Yield in Today's Market ISBN 1-4019-0319-3
Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably: The Baby-Boom Retirement Crisis and how to Beat It ISBN 1-4019-0318-5
2006 How Successful People Win: Using "Bunkhouse Logic" to Get What You Want in Life ISBN 1-56170-975-1
2007 The Real Stars: In Today's America, Who Are the True Heroes? ISBN 1-40191-144-7

[edit] Career in the media

Despite his prominence as a commentator on politics and economics, Stein is perhaps best known for his career in the entertainment industry, which began as a Hollywood consultant before he moved into acting. His film career received a boost from his famous role as the colorless and boring economics teacher in the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In one scene he gives a real, unscripted economics lecture, profiting from his own economic expertise. He decided to just run with it when the director told him to try to be as boring as possible in this scene. The only scripted lines are those in which he calls attendance, indelibly phrasing the oft-repeated monotone line: "Bueller?...Bueller?"

Stein excelled at playing these bland and unemotional characters and was subsequently typecast into many roles, mainly as a nerd. He had a recurring role in the TV series The Wonder Years and played himself in Dave.

He also appeared in several television commercials, most notably for Murine Clear Eyes throughout the 1990s and 2000s ("The difference is clear...Dry Eyes? Clear Eyes.")—many ads spoof movies of the day, such as one where Stein is a painter (a play on The Da Vinci Code). Stein's deadpan, monotone deliveries stand in stark contrast to the more typical enthusiasm of commercial personalities. Before this, he appeared for a Godfather's Pizza ad in 1987 and as a bland science teacher in a 1990 ad for Keebler Sprinkle Cookies.

In 1997 Stein was given his own game show by Comedy Central titled Win Ben Stein's Money along with co-host Jimmy Kimmel (replaced by Nancy Pimental and later by Sal Iacono). True to its name, the money that contestants won on the show was subtracted from the $5000 Stein earned (in addition to his salary). The show won seven Emmy awards before ending its run in 2003 .

In 1999, during the height of Win Ben Stein's Money's popularity, Comedy Central gave Stein another show, a talk show with celebrity guests entitled Turn Ben Stein On. One of the mainstays of the show was Stein's dog, Puppy Wuppy, having free rein over the set.

Other movies and TV shows in which Ben Stein has appeared include:

Among Stein's voice roles include The Pixies on the animated series The Fairly OddParents, Professor Wisenstein in Bruno the Kid, and Pip on Animaniacs. Stein also voiced a psychiatrist, again named after himself, in the USA TV series Duckman. He also once made a cameo appearance in the comic book Young Justice; as Ali Ben Styn. Another cameo appearance was in the Family Guy episode When You Wish Upon a Weinstein. The episode was the show's most controversial ever because of its seemingly anti-Semitic plot, despite Stein and the writer, as well as Alex Borstein, the lead actress and writer of the show, being Jewish. In addition, Stein has written for the television industry. He is noted for his outlines for the TV movie Murder in Mississippi and for the lengthy ABC miniseries Amerika. He has also contributed to the creation of the well-liked TV comedy Fernwood 2-Night.

On May 14, 2006, on Neil Cavuto's Fox News show, Stein called for a tax increase of 3.5% for wealthy Americans, to be earmarked for soldiers and military initiatives. Indeed, Stein wrote an editorial for the New York Times critical of those who would rather make money in the world of finance than fight terrorism. [8]

Stein is noted for his investment advice. Stein recognized that there was something fishy going on with the accounting at MCI Worldcom and shorted the stock. He is now a featured writer at Yahoo! Finance.[9]

Stein is also the star of the upcoming, February 2008 documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.[10]

Ben Stein has a show on VH1 called America's Most Smartest Model,[11] in which he is the host. The show aims to find the smartest among fourteen models through a series of challenges.[12] Ben Stein was a special guest at the VH1 party in Malibu, celebrating the launch of his new show.[13]

[edit] Religious advocacy

Stein has written publicly to denounce the theory of evolution ("Darwinism," as he terms it), declaring it to be "a painful, bloody chapter in the history of ideologies," "the most compelling argument yet for Imperialism," and the inspiration for the Holocaust.[14][15] Stein has said of Charles Darwin that "His ideas led to genocide not once but many times"[16], and stars in an upcoming documentary advocating the teaching of Creationism in schools.

[edit] Personal life

Stein is married to entertainment lawyer Alexandra Denman,[1] whom he once divorced and later remarried. He resides with Denman and son Tom in Beverly Hills, California. Tom is a student at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina. Stein lives part-time in Malibu, California. Stein also has a summer home in Sandpoint, Idaho.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b IMDB: Ben Stein bio
  2. ^ JD Journal: "Winning Thoughts from Ben Stein"
  3. ^ Ben Stein's official biography
  4. ^ Interview by Brian Howard: "20 Questions: Ben Stein" "Philadelphia City Paper" May, 1998
  5. ^ Stein, Ben: "Deep Throat and Genocide", "The Amercian Spectator", June 1, 2005
  6. ^ Richard Kimble, "Tenth Annual Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner Provides a Powerful Testimony for Life"
  7. ^ Ben Stein Says Craig Was Lynched Twice CBS News
  8. ^ Stein, Ben: "Looking for the Will Beyond the Battlefield", "New York Times", August 20, 2006
  9. ^ [1]
  10. ^ Expelled Press Release
  11. ^ [2]
  12. ^ [3]
  13. ^ [4]
  14. ^ "Better Than We Deserve," American Spectator 2007 Dec.
  15. ^ Stein, Ben (2007-10-31). Darwinism: The Imperialism of Biology?. The blog for EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed. Retrieved on 2007-12-07.
  16. ^ "Ben Stein's Diary #60: From Boston To Berlin," American Spectator 2007 Sep., [5]


[edit] External links

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