Writer, actor, lawyer. Born November 25, 1944, in Washington, D.C. The only son of Mildred and Herbert Stein (a respected economist and chairman of the President's Council on Economic Advisors), Ben developed an interest in politics at an early age. From1962-66, he attended New York City’s Columbia University, where he majored in economics. He briefly worked as an economist for the Department of Commerce, before enrolling at Yale Law School in 1968. While earning his law degree, Stein also studied drama and vehemently protested American involvement in the Vietnam War.
After being elected valedictorian of his graduating class, Stein briefly worked as an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). He then moved to California, where he taught film and law classes at the University of California at Santa Cruz, but returned to Washington, D.C. and his job at the FTC in 1973. As the Watergate scandal unfolded, Stein wrote editorials in defense of President Richard Nixon. When the articles caught the attention of the Nixon administration, he was recruited by Pat Buchanan to become a speechwriter. Over the next few months, Stein worked tirelessly to control the damage being done by The Washington Post investigative reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (a boyhood friend of Stein).
Following Nixon's resignation, Stein worked for the Ford administration, but left shortly thereafter to focus his attention on the entertainment industry. In 1974, he became a film and television critic for the Wall Street Journal. Stein's writing caught the attention of producer Norman Lear, who commissioned him to write the TV pilot Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
During the early 1980s, Stein lived in Hollywood, where he contributed to a number of screenplays and wrote numerous books with topics ranging from his experiences in Hollywood to complex economic issues. In 1986, he began his unlikely road to stardom when director John Hughes cast him as the numbingly dull economics teacher in the urban comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Stein made a name for himself as a character actor in a number of popular comedies, including Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), The Mask (1994), and Miami Rhapsody (1995). With his distinctive vocal delivery and eccentric presence, Stein achieved tremendous success with the Emmy-winning game show Win Ben Stein’s Money (1997). Airing on Comedy Central, the trivia show pits Stein against contestants who try to outwit him and ultimately win the $5,000 salary he earns for each show. |
