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'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. He is the son of noted economist and writer Herbert Stein.IMDB: Ben Stein bio His sister, Rachel, is a writer.

Contents

Early years

Legal and academic career

Writing career

Political career

Books authored

Career in the media

Personal life

Notes

External links

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, where his classmates included journalist Carl Bernstein and actors Goldie Hawn and Sylvester Stallone. 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, graduating in 1970 first in his class.

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.JD Journal: "Winning Thoughts from Ben Stein"
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.Ben Stein's official biography
In addition, Stein is very interested in American Civil War history, and is a strong supporter of the Civil War Preservation Trust.

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.

Political career

Ben Stein, along with his writing colleague Mike Eichlerstein, 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." ^[1] 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 of 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." ^[2]
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. He is a pro-life activist and was given a Pro-Life Award in 2003 by the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund.^[3]
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." ^[4]

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

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:

★ Seinfeld

★ Full House

★ Casper Meets Wendy

★ The Mask'' and its sequel, ''Son of the Mask as well as the TV show,

★ Earthworm Jim, the animated TV series

★ Star Search

★ Game Show Moments Gone Bananas

★ Cavuto on Business

★ The O'Reilly Factor

★ CBS Sunday Morning News
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.
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. ^[5]
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 [1] a featured writer at Yahoo Finance.
Stein is also the star of the upcoming, February 2008 documentary '', which claims that Intelligent Design proponents are discriminated against by the scientific community.^[6] The movie has been criticized by one of the interviewees, Biologist PZ Myers, who was asked to be interviewed for a film on the "intersection of science and religion", with a blurb which described the strong support that had been accumulated for evolution, and contrasted this with the religious who rejected it, and the controversy this caused. On learning of the pro-Intelligent design stance of the real film, Myers said "not telling one of the sides in a debate about what the subject might be and then leading him around randomly to various topics, with the intent of later editing it down to the parts that just make the points you want, is the video version of quote-mining and is fundamentally dishonest."^[7] Eugenie Scott, of the National Center for Science Education reported a similar experience.^[8]
Ben Stein has a new show on VH1 coming out called America's Most Smartest Model ^[9], in which he is the host. The show aims to find the smartest among 14 models through a series of challenges ^[10]. Ben Stein was a special guest at the VH1 party in Malibu, celebrating the launch of his new show ^[11].

Personal life

Stein is married to entertainment lawyer Alexandra Denman, whom he once divorced and later remarried. He resides with Denman and their adopted son, Tommy, in Beverly Hills, California. Tommy is now a student at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina. Stein lives part-time in Malibu, California, in a house with a Pacific Ocean view, while teaching at Pepperdine University. Stein also has a summer home in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Notes

1. Interview by Brian Howard: "20 Questions: Ben Stein" "Philadelphia City Paper" May, 1998
2. Stein, Ben: "Deep Throat and Genocide", "The Amercian Spectator", June 1, 2005
3. Richard Kimble, "Tenth Annual Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner Provides a Powerful Testimony for Life"
4. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/02/sunday/main3228091.shtml
5. Stein, Ben: "Looking for the Will Beyond the Battlefield", "New York Times", August 20, 2006
6. ''Expelled'' Press Release
7. Myers, P.Z. I’m gonna be a ☆ MOVIE STAR ☆, on the Panda's Thumb, August 22, 2007. Downloaded 30 August 2007.
8. [http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2007/08/im_gonna_be_a_m.html#comment-198562 In comment #198562 to ''I’m gonna be a ☆ MOVIE STAR ☆'' on the Panda's Thumb. Downloaded 2 September, 2007
9. [2]
10. [3]
11. [4]

External links

★

★ Ben Stein's remarks upon being awarded one of the NRLC's Proudly Pro-Life Awards

★ Ben Stein's column on Yahoo! Finance

★ Out of Disproportion (editorial)