Murray State · CC BY 2.0

A lawyer and speechwriter for Presidents Nixon and Ford who then built an entirely different career as a droll, deadpan entertainer — the monotone economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and the host of the game show Win Ben Stein's Money. He is the son of economist Herbert Stein. His 2008 film Expelled, arguing for intelligent design, drew wide criticism from scientists for its treatment of evolutionary biology.