12 External links Early life

7 Filmography
8 Bibliography
9 Discography
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links
Early life

Colbert was born in Washington, D.C.,[13] and grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, on James Island, the youngest of 11 children in a Catholic family.[6][14][15] Colbert and his siblings, in order from oldest to youngest, are James ("Jimmy"), Edward ("Eddie"), Mary, William ("Billy"), Margo, Thomas ("Tommy"), Jay, Elizabeth ("Lulu"), Paul, Peter, and Stephen.
Many of his ancestors emigrated from Ireland to North America in the 19th century before and during the Great Famine.[16][17]
His father, James William Colbert, Jr., was a doctor and medical school dean at Yale University, Washington University, and finally at the Medical University of South Carolina where he served as vice president for academic affairs. Stephen's mother, Lorna Colbert (née Tuck), was a homemaker.[16][18] In interviews, Colbert describes his parents as devout people who also strongly value intellectualism and taught their children that it was possible to question the Church and still be Catholic.[19] 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.[20][21]
Colbert sometimes comedically claims his surname is French, but his family is of Irish, English, and distant German descent.[6][22] Originally, the name was pronounced /ˈkoʊlbərt/ in English; Stephen Colbert's father, James, wanted to pronounce the name /koʊlˈbɛər/, but maintained the /ˈkoʊlbərt/ pronunciation out of respect for his own father. He offered his children the option to pronounce the name whichever way they preferred.[14] Stephen started using /koʊlˈbɛər/ 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.[6] Stephen's brother Ed, an intellectual property attorney, retained /ˈkoʊlbərt/; this was shown in a February 12, 2009, appearance on The Colbert Report, when his youngest brother asked him, "/ˈkoʊlbərt/ or /koʊlˈbɛər/?" Ed responded "/ˈkoʊlbərt/", to which Stephen jokingly replied, "See you in Hell".[23]