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Stephen Tyrone Colbert (, né: ;〔 born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, singer, actor, media critic, and television host. He currently hosts the late-night television talk show ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' on CBS. Colbert had originally studied to be an actor, but became interested in improvisational theatre when he met Second City director Del Close while attending Northwestern University. He first performed professionally as an understudy for Steve Carell at Second City Chicago; among his troupe mates were comedians Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris, with whom he developed the sketch comedy series ''Exit 57''. Colbert also wrote and performed on the short-lived ''Dana Carvey Show'' before collaborating with Sedaris and Dinello again on the cult television series ''Strangers with Candy''. He gained considerable attention for his role on the latter as closeted gay history teacher Chuck Noblet. His work as a correspondent on Comedy Central's news-parody series ''The Daily Show'' first introduced him to a wide audience. In 2005, he left ''The Daily Show'' to host a spin-off series, ''The Colbert Report''. Following ''The Daily Show''s news-parody concept, ''The Colbert Report'' was a parody of personality-driven political opinion shows such as ''The O'Reilly Factor'', in which Colbert portrayed a caricatured version of conservative political pundits. The series established itself as one of Comedy Central's highest-rated series, earning Colbert an invitation to perform as featured entertainer at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in 2006. Colbert has won nine Primetime Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Peabody Awards. He was named one of 100 most influential people in 2006 and 2012. His book ''I Am America (And So Can You!)'' was number one on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list. Colbert succeeded David Letterman as the host of ''The Late Show'' on CBS, beginning his tenure on September 8, 2015. ==Early life== Colbert was born in Washington, D.C.,〔 the youngest of 11 children in a Catholic family. He grew up on James Island in Charleston, South Carolina. Colbert and his siblings, in order from oldest to youngest, are James, Edward, Mary, William, Margo, Thomas, Jay, Elizabeth, Paul, Peter, and Stephen. His father, James William Colbert, Jr., was a doctor and medical school dean at Yale University, Saint Louis University, and finally at the Medical University of South Carolina where he served as vice president for academic affairs. Stephen's mother, Lorna Elizabeth Colbert (née Tuck), was a homemaker.〔〔http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20709467,00.html〕 In interviews, Colbert has described his parents as devout people who also strongly valued intellectualism and taught their children that it was possible to question the church and still be Catholic.〔 Via the Internet Archive.〕 The emphasis his family placed on intelligence and his observation of negative stereotypes of Southerners led Colbert to train himself to suppress his Southern accent while he was still quite young. As a child, he observed that Southerners were often depicted as being less intelligent than other characters on scripted television; to avoid that stereotype, he taught himself to imitate the speech of American news anchors. While Colbert sometimes comedically claims his surname is French, he is of 15/16ths Irish ancestry (one of his paternal great-great-grandmothers was of German and English descent).〔Smolenyak, Megan. 〕 Many of his ancestors emigrated from Ireland to North America in the 19th century before and during the Great Famine.〔("Faces of America: Stephen Colbert" ), PBS, ''Faces of America'' series, with Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 2010.〕〔("Pedigree of Stephen Colbert" ), Ancestor Tree. Retrieved August 29, 2010.〕 Originally, his surname was pronounced () in English; Stephen Colbert's father, James, wanted to pronounce the name (), but maintained the pronunciation out of respect for his own father. He offered his children the option to pronounce the name whichever way they preferred.〔 Stephen started using later in life when he transferred to Northwestern University, taking advantage of the opportunity to reinvent himself in a new place where no one knew him.〔 Stephen's brother, Ed, an intellectual property attorney, retained ; this was shown in a February 12, 2009, appearance on ''The Colbert Report'', when his youngest brother asked him, " or ?" Ed responded "", to which Stephen jokingly replied, "See you in Hell". On September 11, 1974, when Colbert was ten years old, his father and two of his brothers, Peter and Paul, were killed in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 while it was attempting to land in Charlotte, North Carolina. They were en route to enroll the two boys at Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut.〔 Lorna Colbert relocated the family downtown to the more urban environment of East Bay Street in Charleston. Colbert found the transition difficult and did not easily make new friends in his new neighborhood.〔 Colbert later described himself during this time as detached, lacking a sense of importance regarding the things with which other children concerned themselves.〔 He developed a love of science fiction and fantasy novels, especially the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, of which he remains an avid fan. During his adolescence, he also developed an intense interest in fantasy role-playing games, especially ''Dungeons & Dragons'',〔 a pastime which he later characterized as an early experience in acting and improvisation.〔 Colbert attended Charleston's Episcopal Porter-Gaud School, where he participated in several school plays and contributed to the school newspaper but was not highly motivated academically.〔 During his adolescence, he briefly fronted a Rolling Stones cover band called ''A Shot in the Dark''. When he was younger, he had hoped to study marine biology, but surgery intended to repair a severely perforated eardrum caused him inner ear damage. The damage was severe enough that he was unable to pursue a career that would involve scuba diving. The damage also left him deaf in his right ear.〔 For a while, he was uncertain whether he would attend college, but ultimately he applied and was accepted to Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia, where a friend had also enrolled. There he continued to participate in plays while studying mainly philosophy.〔〔 He found the curriculum rigorous, but was more focused than he had been in high school and was able to apply himself to his studies. Despite the lack of a significant theater community at Hampden–Sydney, Colbert's interest in acting escalated during this time. After two years, he transferred to Northwestern University as a theater major to study performance, emboldened by the realization that he loved performing, even when no one was coming to shows.〔 He graduated from Northwestern's School of Communication in 1986. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stephen Colbert」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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