Ben Stein Biography

Fast Facts

• Won the Malcolm Forbes Award for excellence in financial writing in 2009
• Graduated from Columbia University with a degree in economics in 1966 and earned his law degree from Yale in 1970
• Became a film and television critic for The Wall Street Journal in 1974 and went on to contribute to numerous screenplays and books during the early 1980s
• Began his career as an attorney for the Federal Trade Commission and also taught film and law courses at the University of California at Santa Cruz
• After writing several editorials in defense of President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, he was hired by Pat Buchanan to become Nixon's speechwriter
• A speaker on economics, politics and education, he now writes for The American Spectator and appears as a regular commentator on Fox News and CNN
• Best known for playing the economics teacher in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and as the host of the game show "Win Ben Stein's Money․"