Bill O'Reilly (political commentator)

Bill O'Reilly
O'Reilly at the World Affairs Council in 2010
Born	William James O'Reilly Jr. (1949-09-10) September 10, 1949 (age 67) New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Marist College Boston University Harvard University
Occupation	Television host, political commentator, author
Years active	1975–present
Political party	Independence Party of New York
Spouse(s)	Maureen McPhilmy (m. 1996; div. 2011)
Children	2
Website	billoreilly.com

William James "Bill" O'Reilly Jr. (born September 10, 1949) is an American television host, author, journalist, syndicated columnist, and political commentator. He is the host of the political commentary program The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel. During the late 1970s and 1980s, he worked as a news reporter for various local television stations in the United States and eventually for CBS News and ABC News. From 1989 to 1995, he was anchor of the news magazine program Inside Edition.

O'Reilly is widely considered a conservative commentator, although some of his positions diverge from conservative orthodoxy. O'Reilly is registered as a member of the Independence Party of New York, and was formerly registered as a Republican and characterizes himself as a traditionalist. O'Reilly is the author of over a dozen books, and hosted The Radio Factor until early 2009.

O'Reilly was born on September 10, 1949, at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, to parents William James, Sr., (deceased) and Winifred Angela (Drake) O'Reilly, from Brooklyn and Teaneck, New Jersey, respectively. O'Reilly is of Irish descent, along with a small amount of English (Colonial American) ancestry. Some of his father's ancestors lived in County Cavan, Ireland, since the early eighteenth century, and on his mother's side, he has ancestry from Northern Ireland. The O'Reilly family lived in a small apartment in Fort Lee, New Jersey, when their son was born. In 1951 his family moved to Levittown, on Long Island. O'Reilly has a sister, Janet.