George Stephanopoulos
George Robert Stephanopoulos (born February 10, 1961) is an American broadcaster and politician. He is currently the host of ABC's Sunday morning news show This Week; he was previously a senior political adviser to the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign of Bill Clinton and later became Clinton's press secretary and communications director.
Early life
George Stephanopoulos grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, the descendant of Greek immigrants. His parents followed the Greek Orthodox faith, and Stephanopoulos, whose father was a Greek Orthodox priest, had long considered entering the profession himself. However, when he was a freshman in high school, he decided that he would rather pursue a different profession. Stephanopoulos attributes his experience as an altar boy, where he played a behind-the-scenes role helping the person in the spotlight, his father, as the formative experience that made him well-suited to political spinning.
Education
Stephanopoulos wrestled competitively in high school, though he was a
Stephanopoulos' father had always wanted his son to become a lawyer, if not a priest, so he promised his father that he would attend law school eventually. For the time being he took a job with a Congressman from Cleveland, and served as an aide in Washington, D.C. Columbia, Stephanopoulos was successful in his second attempt.
While at Oxford, Stephanopoulos earned a master's degree in theology
Political experience
Stephanopoulos was, along with David Wilhelm and James Carville, a leading member of the 1992 Clinton campaign. Later, he was promoted to Senior Advisor on Policy and Strategy. His role on the campaign is portrayed in The War Room.[1]
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After leaving the White House, he became a political analyst for ABC News, as a correspondent on the ABC Sunday talk program This Week, World News Tonight, Good Morning America, and various special broadcasts. In September 2002, Stephanopoulos became host of This Week.
His 1999 memoir, entitled All Too Human: A Political Education, was published after he left the White House during Clinton's second term. It quickly became a #1 New York Times Best Seller. [2] In his book, Stephanopoulos spoke of his depression and how his face broke out into hives due to the relentless pressures of spinning the Clinton White House message. Bill Clinton referred to the book in his autobiography, My Life, apologizing for what he felt in retrospect to be excessive demands of the young staffer.
Pop Icon
Both Michael J. Fox's character in The American President and Rob Lowe's character on The West Wing are modeled after Stephanopoulos.
Stephanopoulos was also the subject of the fourth episode of the hit TV series Friends. In their very first season they made an episode entitled 'The One with George Stephanopoulos'. When the delivery guy brings a pizza meant for 'G Stephanopoulos', the girls decide to sit on their balcony and leer at a towel-clad George who lives across the street.
References
- Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 140003003X.