Bob Beckel

Robert Gilliland Beckel (November 15, 1948 – February 20, 2022) was an American political analyst and pundit, and political operative. He was an analyst and commentator on Fox News. He had been a commentator on Fox News and was an original co-host of The Five until he was released in 2015 after being absent for several months recovering from back surgery. After departing Fox News, Beckel became a commentator for CNN, but returned to Fox News as co-host of The Five on January 16, 2017. On May 19, 2017, Fox News announced Beckel had been fired again after he was accused of making a racist remark to a Fox News employee. Early life Beckel was born in Greenwich Village, Manhattan and grew up in Lyme, Connecticut. He is the son of Cambridge Graham Beckel Jr. (author of Workshops for the World: The United Nations Family of Agencies) and Ellen Gilliland Beckel. Both of Beckel's parents were alcoholics. He is the older brother of actor Graham Beckel. Beckel received a BA from Wagner College in Staten Island. While in college, he played football and was a brother of Theta Chi fraternity. and worked for Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1968. After college, Beckel served in the Philippines as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1971 to 1972, and later was a graduate school professor of politics at George Washington University.