A man with spirit and talent, Benjamin Jeremy Stein (1944–) was born on this day in Washington, D.C. The star of Comedy Central’s Emmy Award–winning game show Win Ben Stein’s Money, he was the valedictorian of his Yale Law School class in 1970.

Stein once observed, “The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.”

A former White House speechwriter for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, the versatile Stein is a novelist who has written syndicated financial and political news articles. The deadpan intellectual is also a film, television, and commercial actor. One of his most memorable roles was as a monotone teacher in the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986).

“No one will do it for you,” said Stein.

The popular, outspoken television host once said, “Nothing happens by itself… it all will come your way, once you understand that you have to make it come your way, by your own exertions.”

“I’m me,” he said, “a monotone person wrapped around a shrieking one trying to get out.”