Biography
Personal life
Ben Stein was born to parents of Jewish descent and grew up in a Democratic neighborhood in 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. He graduated with honors in 1966, and then enrolled in Yale University Law School, graduating as the valedictorian in 1970.
Today Stein is married to entertainment lawyer Alexandra Denman [1], whom he once divorced and later remarried. He resides with Denman and their son in Beverly Hills, California. He lives part-time in Malibu, California, in a house with a Pacific Ocean view, while teaching at Pepperdine University.
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.
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.
In addition, Stein is very interested in American Civil War history, and is a strong supporter of the Civil War Preservation Trust.
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. See.
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." On June 17, 2002, CNN aired a clip of Stein stating, "I'm sure there was no Deep Throat. I'm absolutely sure of it. I've got a million dollars there's no Deep Throat." [4] On May 13, 2003 he told David and Tom Gardner of the Motley Fool, "There was no Deep Throat, I'm sure of it. I certainly wasn't. At the time Deep Throat was operating, I was a hippie in the woods of Santa Cruz, Calif. — so it wasn't me. And I don't think there was any Deep Throat. I think it was somebody Bob Woodward made up in one of his more imaginative moments."
When W. Mark Felt finally admitted to being the famous informant on May 31, 2005, Stein stopped denying the existence of Deep Throat and began expressing contempt toward Felt and his role in exposing the Watergate scandal. Stein said "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." in part because he felt Nixon would not have allowed the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
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.
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, 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.
Stein's book titles to date (7 fiction, 20 nonfiction) include:
DREEMZ (1978)
The View from Sunset Boulevard: America as brought to you by the people who make television (1979)
Ludes (1982)
Financial Passages (1985)
Her Only Sin (1986) ISBN 0312906366
Hollywood Days, Hollywood Nights: the Diary of a Mad Screenwriter (1988)
A License to Steal: the Untold Story of Michael Milken and the Conspiracy to Bilk the Nation (1992)
How to Ruin Your Life (2002) ISBN 1561709743
How to Ruin Your Love Life (2003) ISBN 1401902405
How to Ruin Your Financial Life (2004) ISBN 1401902413
Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do About It (2004) ISBN 1401903339
Yes, You Can Be a Successful Income Investor: Reaching for Yield in Today's Market (2005) ISBN 1401903193
Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably: The Baby-Boom Retirement Crisis and how to Beat It (2005) ISBN 1401903185
How Successful People Win: Using "Bunkhouse Logic" to Get What You Want in Life (2006) ISBN 1561709751
Career in the media
Despite his prominence as a commentator on politics and economics, Ben 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. (The only scripted lines are those in which he calls attendance.)
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 did a series of commercials for Clear Eyes. Stein's deadpan, monotone deliveries stood in stark contrast to the more typical enthusiasm of commercial personalities, making the Clear Eyes advertisements unusual and memorable.
Among Stein's voice roles are The Pixies on the hit animated series The Fairly OddParents and Pip on Animaniacs. He once made a cameo appearance in the comic book Young Justice; Ali Ben Styn was the sheik of an Arabian castle in a snowy area in the middle of the Middle Eastern desert. After his palace was rescued from certain doom via lava flow, he promised the heroes anything they wanted, except his money.
In 1997 Stein was given his own game show by Comedy Central titled Win Ben Stein's Money along with co-host Jimmy Kimmel. True to its name, the money that contestants won on the show was subtracted from the $5000 Ben earned (in addition to his salary). If any contestant dared to respond to a question in the "What is…" style of Jeopardy!, Stein would force him or her to wear a dunce cap. The show won seven Emmy awards before ending its run in 2003. As of 2005, re-runs air on the American Game Show Network.
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.
In 2003 and 2004 Stein judged for Star Search. In 2005 he began his run as host of Game Show Moments Gone Bananas on VH1. Despite having appeared in many "Hollywood" movies, he is a noted critic of many attitudes found among film studio leaders, but not of the "rank and file" of the film industry itself.
Stein currently appears on Fox News Channel as a regular member of the Cavuto on Business panel. He has been a guest of Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor concerning economics. He is also a frequent commentator on the CBS Sunday Morning News.
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.
