William F. Buckley.

William Frank Buckley Jr. was born on November 24, 1925, in New York City to Aloise Josephine Antonia Steiner and William Frank Buckley Sr., a wealthy oilman. He was one of ten children, growing up in a large Catholic family with siblings including future senator James L. Buckley. Buckley attended Millbrook School before enrolling at Yale University, where he studied at Davenport College and sharpened his debating skills. His father’s influence and his own voracious reading shaped his conservative worldview.

Buckley founded National Review in 1955, a magazine that became the leading voice of American conservatism. He hosted the public affairs program Firing Line from 1966 to 1999, interviewing major figures such as Noam Chomsky. On television, he appeared as an actor on shows like Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and in the documentary Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media 1992. His book God and Man at Yale 1951 sparked controversy and established him as a provocative thinker. Buckley also served in the CIA as a political action officer.

Buckley married Patricia Aldyen Austin Taylor on July 6, 1950. They had one son, Christopher Buckley, who became a noted author. Despite his intense political battles, Buckley maintained close friendships with liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith, with whom he often debated and planned annual ski trips. He served as godfather to three of E. Howard Hunt’s children and as executor of the estate of Hunt’s wife, Dorothy, after her death in a 1972 plane crash. Buckley died on February 27, 2008, in Stamford, Connecticut, from emphysema.

Buckley’s influence on American conservatism is immense. National Review provided a platform for conservative ideas, and his television appearances brought these ideas to a wide audience. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, received the National Book Award, and was named a Library of Congress Living Legend. In 2025, a U.S. postage stamp was issued in his honor on September 9. Buckley is remembered as the intellectual godfather of the modern conservative movement.