Ben Stein

Benjamin Jeremy Stein (born November 25, 1944) is an American writer, lawyer, actor, comedian, and commentator on political and economic issues. He began his career as a speechwriter for U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford before entering the entertainment field as an actor, comedian, and game show host. He is best known on screen as the economics teacher in ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'', as the host of '' Win Ben Stein's Money'', and as Dr. Arthur Neuman in '' The Mask'' and '' Son of the Mask''. Stein also co-wrote and starred in the controversial 2008 film'' Expelled'' which was widely criticized for promoting pseudoscientific intelligent design creationist claims of persecution. Stein is the son of economist and writer Herbert Stein, who worked at the White House under President Nixon. As a character actor, he is well known for his droning, monotonous delivery. In comedy, he is known for his deadpan delivery.

Early life and education

Stein was born on November 25, 1944 in Washington, D.C., the son of Jewish parents Mildred ( Fishman), a homemaker, and Herbert Stein, a writer, economist, and presidential adviser. He grew up in the Woodside Forest neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland. Stein graduated in 1962 from Montgomery Blair High School, which journalist Carl Bernstein (class of 1960) and actress Goldie Hawn (class of 1963) also attended. 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 as valedictorian in June 1970.

Career

Legal and academic career

He 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 about the political and social content of mass culture at American University in Washington, D.C. He subsequently taught classes at the University of California, Santa Cruz on political and civil rights under the United States Constitution. At Pepperdine University Stein taught libel law and United States securities law and its ethical aspects. He was a professor of law and economics at Pepperdine University Law School from about 1990 to 1997.Ben Stein'
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Writing career

Stein writes a regular column in the conservative media outlets '' The American Spectator'' and '' Newsmax''. 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''. He wrote a regular biweekly column for ''Yahoo! Finance'' online, with his last article dated August 7, 2009. His bestselling books (with investment advisor Phil DeMuth) include ''Yes, You Can Retire Comfortably''; ''Can America Survive?''; and ''Yes, You Can Time the Market''. In 2009, he published a collection of essays, ''The Real Stars''.

Stein was fired from his position as a Sunday Business columnist at ''The New York Times'' in August 2009 owing to a policy prohibiting writers from making product endorsements or advertising. Stein had recently become an advertising spokesman for credit information company Freescore.com and, according to a ''Times'' statement, had assumed there would be no conflict provided that he did not discuss credit scoring in general or FreeScore.com itself in his column. However, the publication felt that it would be inappropriate for him to write for them while he was involved in advertising and terminated his contract. Writing in ''The Spectator'', Stein states his belief that the real reasons for his firing were budget cuts at the ''Times'', his criticism of Obama, and pressure from those critical of ''Expelled'', who "bamboozled some of the high pooh-bahs at the ''Times'' into thinking there was a conflict of interest".

Political career

Stein began his political career as a speechwriter and lawyer for President Richard Nixon, and later for President Gerald Ford. On May 3, 1976, ''Time'' magazine speculated on the possibility of Stein having actually been Deep Throat. Stein responded over the years not only by 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 as 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." 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:

In 2005, Stein said in the '' American Spectator'':

Career in the media

Stein acted as the monotonous economics teacher in the 1986 movie ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off''. In one scene, he lectures on the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 and the then-current debate over supply-side economics.

Stein played similarly bland and unemotional characters. He had a recurring role in the TV series '' The Wonder Years'' as science teacher Mr. Cantwell, who would narrate 16 mm films in monotone. Stein also played himself in '' Dave''.

He appeared in several television advertisements, such as for Clear Eyes eye drops throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Godfather's Pizza in 1987, a bland science teacher in 1990 for Sprinkled Chips Ahoy! cookies, and in 2013 for small business accounting service firm 1-800Accountant.

From 1997 to 2003, Stein hosted the Comedy Central game show '' 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 $5,000 pay that Stein earned per episode (in addition to his salary). The show won five Daytime Emmy Awards before ending its run in 2003.

In 1999, Stein also hosted the Comedy Central talk show '' Turn Ben Stein On''. One of the mainstays of the show was Stein's dog, Puppy Wuppy, who had free run of the set. In 2001, Stein appeared on a celebrity episode of ''The Weakest Link'' entitled "TV Hosts Edition" alongside other television hosts and was voted off in round 6 despite being that round's Strongest Link. Anne Robinson's quip was that while he "might win Ben's money; you're NOT taking ours!".

Other movies and television shows in which Stein has appeared include ''Charles in Charge''; ''Seinfeld''; ''Full House''; '' Casper''; '' Casper: A Spirited Beginning''; '' Casper Meets Wendy''; '' The Mask'' and its sequel, '' Son of the Mask'' as well as the television show, '' The Mask: Animated Series''; ''Earthworm Jim''; ''Star Search''; ''MacGyver''; '' Tales from the Crypt''; '' Richie Rich''; ''Game Show Moments Gone Bananas''; ''Cavuto on Business''; ''The O'Reilly Factor''; ''CBS News Sunday Morning''; '' Planes, Trains and Automobiles''; ''Family Guy''; the 1998–2004 version of ''Hollywood Squares''; the Michael Berger-hosted version of ''Match Game''; ''The Fairly OddParents''; ''Duckman''; '' Married... with Children''; '' The Emperor's New School''; '' My Girl 2''; ''Ghostbusters II''; and the intelligent design documentary '' Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed''.

In addition, Stein's voice roles include The Pixies, magical creatures on the animated series ''The Fairly OddParents''; Mr. Purutu on the animated series '' The Emperor's New School''; Professor Wisenstein in '' Bruno the Kid''; the birthday party clown, Mr. Giggles, on '' The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius''; a bingo caller on ''Rugrats''; Francis "Pip" Pumphandle in ''Animaniacs''; and H.A. Futterman in '' Freakazoid!''. Stein also voiced a psychiatrist, again named after himself, in the USA TV series ''Duckman''; he once appeared in the sitcom '' Married... with Children'' as a receptionist in the animal afterlife. He also made a cameo appearance in the comic book ''Young Justice'', as Ali Ben Styn. Another cameo appearance was as Rabbi Goldberg in the ''Family Guy'' episodes " When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" and " Family Goy". Stein also voiced the character Sam Schmaltz in the 1996 computer adventure game '' Toonstruck''.

Stein has written for the television industry, including outlines for the TV movie ''Murder in Mississippi'' and for the lengthy ABC miniseries '' Amerika''. He has also contributed to the creation of the talk show parody series ''Fernwood 2 Night''.

Stein hosted a show on VH1 called '' America's Most Smartest Model''. The show aimed to find the smartest among 14 models through a series of challenges.

On May 14, 2006, during an appearance on the Fox News program ''Your World with Neil Cavuto'', Stein called for a tax increase of 3.5% for wealthy Americans, to be earmarked for soldiers and military initiatives. 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.

On December 28, 2009, Stein appeared on CNN's ''Larry King Live'' with Ron Paul to discuss the attempted bombing of an American plane on Christmas Day 2009. Stein said that Paul's stance that the United States were "occupiers" in Iraq and Afghanistan was antisemitic. The comment started a shouting match between the two men. Two days later, Stein clarified that "if Rep. Paul says he is... not an anti-Semite, I believe him".

Stein's political and economics commentary has appeared on CNBC's '' The Kudlow Report'' and CNN.

Commentary in the lead-up to and during the Great Recession

In the months before the late-2000s recession, Stein made frequent and vehement claims about the economy's good health and the relative unimportance of the mortgage-derivative market; these would shortly be proven dead wrong.

Examples include:

* On March 18, 2007, as the subprime mortgage crisis began, Stein wrote a column for the online version of ''CBS News Sunday Morning.'' He proclaimed that the foreclosure problem would "blow over and the people who buy now, in due time, will be glad they did," that the economy was "still very strong," and that the "smart money" was "now trying to buy—not sell—as much distressed merchandise" in mortgages as possible.
* In an August 12, 2007, column in ''The New York Times'', titled "Chicken Little's Brethren, on the Trading Floor", Stein—while acknowledged that "I don't know where the bottom is on subprime. I don't know how bad the problems are at Bear nowiki/>Bear Stearns">Bear_Stearns.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Bear Stearns">nowiki/>Bear Stearns—claimed that "subprime losses are wildly out of all proportion to the likely damage to the economy from the subprime problems," and "[t]his economy is extremely strong. Profits are superb. The world economy is exploding with growth. To be sure, terrible problems lurk in the future: a slow-motion dollar crisis, huge Medicare deficits and energy shortages. But for now, the sell-off seems extreme, not to say nutty. Some smart, brave people will make a fortune buying in these days, and then we'll all wonder what the scare was about."
* On August 18, 2007, on Fox News Channel's ''Cavuto on Business'', Stein and other financial experts dismissed worries about a coming credit crunch. Thirteen months later, at the peak of the 2008 financial crisis, global stock markets crashed, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the US government, AIG was bailed out by the Federal Reserve, Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America Corporation, and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs confirmed that they would become traditional bank holding companies.

In January 2008, business commentator Henry Blodget wrote a piece for ''Business Insider'' entitled, "Ben Stein is an Idiot", which stated that Stein's criticism of those with bearish views and positions on the market was either "delusional" or a deliberate and "shrewd" attempt to create false controversy and increase web traffic.

In a Yahoo! Finance article published on October 17, 2008, Stein said his wildly incorrect claims were due to his expectations that the real-estate market would roughly resemble the collapse of junk bonds in the early 1990s. He said he failed to understand that debt obligations based on real estate loans were less than the "staggeringly large" amount of obligations that were created through trading in derivatives of those: "Where I missed the boat was not realizing how large were the CDS nowiki/>credit default swaps">credit_default_swaps.html" ;"title="nowiki/>credit default swaps">nowiki/>credit default swapsbased on the junk mortgage bonds."

Personal life

Stein is married to entertainment lawyer Alexandra Denman. They were married in 1968 and divorced in 1974. They reconciled and in 1977 they were married again. Stein lives with Denman in Beverly Hills and Malibu, California. He also has a summer home in Sandpoint, Idaho, and an apartment in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., which he inherited from his parents.

In 2014, performance artist Tanya Ma claimed that a financial arrangement between her and Stein had turned inappropriate. Stein said of the incident that he only expected "hugging and kissing" and that he often gets "mad crushes" on women that "last about ten minutes."

Views and advocacy

Abortion

Stein is opposed to legalized abortion and was given an award in 2003 by the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund.

Larry Craig scandal

In 2007, Stein chastised the police and the GOP leadership for their response to the Larry Craig scandal. Stein said that Craig's sexuality should not be an issue: "A party that believes in individual rights should be rallying to his defense, not making him walk the plank."

Tax code

Stein has criticized the United States Internal Revenue Code for being too lenient on the wealthy. He has repeated the observation made by Warren Buffett, one of the richest individuals in the world (who pays mostly capital gains tax), that Buffett pays a lower overall tax rate than his secretaries (who pay income taxes and payroll taxes). Stein has advocated increasing taxation on the wealthy. Stein objected to Obama's proposal in 2010 not to extend tax cuts for the highest earning taxpayers in the midst of the recession, saying that:

In 2012, Stein stated that due to the tremendous amount of national debt, he agreed with Obama's proposal to increase taxes on the wealthy and that ultimately everyone's taxes should be raised to avoid defaulting on the debt.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

When the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was arrested for sexual assault and attempted rape in 2011, Stein published an editorial in '' The American Spectator'' in which he closely scrutinized Strauss-Kahn's accuser and cited Strauss-Kahn's education, wealth, and position as reasons to believe he was unlikely to have committed the crime:

Stein's editorial was criticized by a number of media outlets. Jon Stewart dedicated an entire segment on ''The Daily Show'' to his response. All charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn were formally dismissed by a judge on August 23, 2011.

Ferguson shooting

In response to the death of Michael Brown, Stein made the following comment:

Evolution

Stein has denounced the scientific theory of evolution, which he and other intelligent design advocates call "Darwinism", 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. Stein does not say belief in evolution alone leads to genocide, but that scientific materialism is a necessary component. He co-wrote and stars in '' Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed'', a film that aims to persuade viewers that evolution was instrumental to the rise of the eugenics movement, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust, and portrays advocates of intelligent design as victims of intellectual discrimination by the scientific community, which has rejected intelligent design as creationist pseudoscience."This is propaganda, a political rant disguised as a serious commentary on stifled freedom of inquiry." In the trailer for the film, Stein said that his aim was to expose "people out there who want to keep science in a little box where it can't possibly touch God."

Many critics point out that Stein selectively used and edited quotes by Charles Darwin to make his case in ''Expelled'', also noting that scenes shot at Pepperdine University, in which Stein gives a speech to an auditorium full of students, in fact used a large number of extras, hired to respond favorably to Stein's speech, to fill the room.
The media response to the film has been largely unfavorable. It received an 11% meta-score from Rotten Tomatoes. Multiple reviews, including those of ''USA Today'' and ''Scientific American'', have described the film as propaganda.

In a Trinity Broadcasting Network interview with Paul Crouch Jr. regarding the movie, Stein claimed that " eligionleads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people".

The Anti-Defamation League issued a statement condemning the film's misuse of the Holocaust and its imagery, "Using the Holocaust in order to tarnish those who promote the theory of evolution is outrageous and trivializes the complex factors that led to the mass extermination of European Jewry".

At the University of Vermont, Stein was invited to receive an honorary degree and be the commencement speaker for the graduating class of 2009. University President Dan Fogel received complaints about Stein's planned appearance, due to Stein's views on evolution. Stein declined his commencement invitation.

At the private, Christian Liberty University 2009 graduation, Stein was awarded an honorary degree and, according to the university, "spoke extensively about his work on ''Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed''".

Foreign policy

Stein is a staunch supporter of Israel. On ''Larry King Live'' in 2009, in a heated exchange with then-Congressman Ron Paul, he referred to Paul as antisemitic for referring to the U.S. as "occupiers" in the Arabian peninsula.

Political endorsements

Stein endorsed John McCain for president in 2008, calling him "an impressive guy". That year, he also stated that he would vote for Ralph Nader. In January 2012, Stein appeared in political advertisements sponsored by Associated Industries of Florida supporting legislation that would create three resort casinos in South Florida. He claimed in late 2014 that President Barack Obama was the most racist president in American history, saying Obama "made everything about race".

In 2016, Stein reprised the famous attendance scene from ''Ferris Bueller'' in a campaign ad for Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. In it, Stein intoned the last name of Grassley's opponent ( Patty Judge) to silence, while facts about her missed votes and absences from state board meetings were listed. Stein then calls out "Grassley," which gets a response; Stein mutters, "He's always here."

Stein initially supported Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, but retracted his support in October 2016, writing, "But it's time for Donald Trump to go back to Trump Tower. Time for Mike Pence to move to the top of the ticket." However, Stein went on to vote for Trump.

Aunt Jemima

In February 2023, Stein released a video on Donald Trump's Truth Social stating he missed the Aunt Jemima logo with a "large African American woman chef." He added, "But, I prefer when it was a black person, showing their incredible skill at making pancakes." The video was also shared on Twitter and the story ran on media outlets across the country.

The original Aunt Jemima logo and brand name was retired in 2021 by PepsiCo and its subsidiary, Quaker Oats. This was due to the connection with the "Mammy" stereotype and racial connotations associated with the character.

Bibliography

Stein's book titles to date (7 fiction, 21 nonfiction) include:

Filmography and television appearances

References

External links

Ben Stein's official website
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Ben Stein on ''Politicking with Larry King''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Ben
1944 births
Living people
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