萝莉社

Ben Stein

2025 Speaker 鈥� 6 p.m. March 11, 2025 鈥� Miller Concert Hall

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Ben Stein was born on Nov. 25, 1944, in Washington, DC. His father was the noted economist Herbert Stein. His mother, Mildred Stein, was an early success in the world of female economists.

He attended Columbia University in New York City, where he graduated with honors in economics. He worked for a year as an economist for the U.S. Department of Commerce. He then entered Yale Law School to study law, economics, and drama and graduated as the 1970 valedictorian. 

He worked as a trial lawyer on highly complex trade regulation cases while also teaching about the political and social content of entertainment media from Hollywood. 

In 1973, he became a speechwriter and lawyer for President Richard Nixon. His portion of the "Watergate Defense Team" was the only piece that was dropped by the prosecutors. Stein then worked for Gerald Ford until 1975. 

In June 1976, he moved to Hollywood to research a book about the political views of Hollywood powers and how these made it onto the large and small screen. At the same time, he penned a diary of his life in Hollywood called "Dreemz," which the New York Times called "stunning."

That was the first of dozens of books that Stein wrote, most of them about finance, and he became one of the leading critics of the junk bond super scandal. 

In 1985, Stein portrayed the iconic monotone teacher in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." He has since appeared in hundreds of movies and TV shows. For six seasons, he hosted a game show called "Win Ben Stein's Money," one of the first shows on Comedy Central. Stein and his colleague, Jimmy Kimmel, created almost 1,000 episodes of the game show, which earned three Emmy Awards.

Stein was a columnist on economics for The New New York Times for three years and has been a regular columnist and commentator for Fox and CNN.

In the past 25 years, Stein has been an extremely busy speaker on politics and economics, speaking at major universities such as Harvard Law School and Yale. His son died in a firearms accident, and Stein and his wife have been active in gun safety causes.

Stein lives in Beverly Hills with his wife, Alex.