Benjamin Frederick Mankiewicz (born March 25, 1967) is an American television personality, political commentator, and film critic. He is a host on

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...

and has been a commentator on ''

The Young Turks ''The Young Turks'' (TYT) is an American progressive news commentary show on YouTube that additionally appears on selected television channels. TYT serves as the flagship program of the TYT Network, a multi-channel network of associated web s ...

'' and ''What the Flick?!''

Early life

Mankiewicz was born in Washington, D.C., to press secretary

Frank Mankiewicz Frank Fabian Mankiewicz II (May 16, 1924 – October 23, 2014) was an American journalist, political adviser, president of National Public Radio, and public relations executive. Life and career Frank Mankiewicz was born in New York City ...

and Holly Mankiewicz (née Jolley) of German–Jewish descent. He is the cousin of screenwriter

Tom Mankiewicz Thomas Frank Mankiewicz (June 1, 1942 – July 31, 2010) was an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures and television whose credits included ''James Bond'' films and his contributions to '' Superman: The Movie'' (1978) a ...

and filmmaker/television producer Nick Davis, the grandson of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, the grand-nephew of screenwriter, producer, and director

Joseph L. Mankiewicz Joseph Leo Mankiewicz (; February 11, 1909 – February 5, 1993) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and won both the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best A ...

, and the brother of

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

News reporter Josh Mankiewicz. He attended

Georgetown Day School Georgetown Day School (GDS) is an independent coeducational PK-12 school located in Washington, D.C. The school educates 1,075 elementary, middle, and high school students in northwestern Washington, D.C. Russell Shaw is the current Head of Sc ...

for his primary and secondary education,

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

for undergraduate studies, and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

for graduate studies.

Career

Mankiewicz began his career as a reporter and an anchor for

WCSC-TV WCSC-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Charleston, South Carolina, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Gray Television. The station's studios are located in the West Ashley section of Charleston, and its transmitter is loca ...

(a CBS affiliate) in Charleston, South Carolina. He joined WAMI in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

, Florida, in 1998, where he served as anchor of ''The Times'', a daily news magazine show and the station's highlight program. Since 2003, Mankiewicz has been a host of ''Turner Classic Movies''. When he made his debut on TCM, he became the second host hired in the network's history (

Robert Osborne Robert Jolin Osborne (; May 3, 1932 – March 6, 2017) was an American film historian, television presenter, author, actor and the primary host for more than 20 years of the cable channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Prior to hosting at TCM, Os ...

being the first). As a film critic, Mankiewicz co-hosted the nationally syndicated television series '' At the Movies'' from 2008 to 2009 and co-hosted the online film review show ''What the Flick?!'' on The Young Turks Network. He launched TCM original podcast (April 2020), "The Plot Thickens" in which he interviews renowned director

Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. One of the " New Hollywood" directors, Bogdanovich started as a film journalist until he was hired to work on ...

(''

The Last Picture Show ''The Last Picture Show'' is a 1971 American coming-of-age drama film directed and co-written by Peter Bogdanovich, adapted from the semi-autobiographical 1966 novel ''The Last Picture Show'' by Larry McMurtry. The film's ensemble cast includes ...

,'' '' Paper Moon,'' etc.) who chronicles his life in and out of film. The podcast is scheduled to have others connected to film interviewed in subsequent podcasts. Mankiewicz has made

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

s in the Lifetime television movie ''The Bling Ring'' (2011) and the action film ''

White House Down ''White House Down'' is a 2013 American political action thriller film directed by Roland Emmerich and written by James Vanderbilt. In the film, a divorced US Capitol Police officer attempts to rescue both his daughter and the President of ...

'' (2013). Mankiewicz also appears regularly on other shows as a political and media commentator, including ''The Michael Brooks Show'' in 2017, and hosts a segment on the CBS Sunday morning show called ''Screen Time''. He was among the people interviewed for the documentary film '' Memory: The Origins of Alien'' (2019).

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mankiewicz, Ben 1967 births 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American male writers American film critics American male journalists American male non-fiction writers American people of German-Jewish descent American podcasters American radio personalities American television hosts California Democrats Columbia University alumni Georgetown Day School alumni Journalists from Washington, D.C. Living people Mankiewicz family The Young Turks people Tufts University alumni