4.) Ben Stein
The biography of Ben Stein reads like that of a highly credentialed academic or political dignitary. What he is best known for, his role as the “boring teacher” in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, is a footnote next to far more substantive accomplishments.
Stein’s resume highlights include work as an economist with the Department of Commerce, serving as a speech writer for presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and writing as a columnist for several major newspapers.
Perhaps Stein’s most prominent recent contribution to the political discourse was 2008′s Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. A documentary chronicling the lack of academic freedom in higher education, Expelled focused on intelligent design theory and the persecution of those who espouse it at colleges and universities.
