Celebrity Spies, True Stories, Book 1, Actors

By Deborah Plisko

Celebrity Spies, Book I - Actors, features over fifty actors who actively participated in espionage activities or worked directly with the intelligence services. The book features true stories, biographies and filmographies from 'real-life' spies as well as fascinating trivia and over one hundred and fifty images.

Hundreds of celebrities eagerly answered the ‘call to arms’ and brought their talents and patriotism to the intelligence services, military, combat, and war information offices. Many worked directly as operatives or even agents, and even more assisted the war effort by participating in, producing, directing or supporting propaganda films.

Did you know?
Cary Grant was a spy hunter..
Frank Sinatra lent the CIA his jet for rendition flights..
Dr. Seuss produced propaganda instructional cartoons for the US Army Signal Corps...
Lucky Luciano, head of the mafia crime family, worked with the CIA..
Alfred Hitchcock was an MI6 contact man..
Walt Disney became an undercover spy for the FBI..

In this book we uncover famous personalities who 'spied for the side', and ultimately impacted life as we know it today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Deborah Plisko
• Release date: Jun 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9780956453020

Deborah Plisko

Deborah Plisko McDonald is a director at Eye Spy Publishing Ltd, based in New York City. She has worked in the security and intelligence fields for over 25 years. In addition to overall management of Eye Spy Intelligence Magazine, she has written five books on espionage and intelligence.

Book preview

Introduction

The association between famous people and the world of espionage may seem unlikely. At the same time, it makes sense to enlist the services of the famous and powerful in order to take advantage of their connections, along with the desire of other powerful people to associate with them.

Espionage by its very nature requires secrecy and anonymity - but the rich and famous, with the finances and ability to travel, easily circulated among those in power and in the 'know', making them highly prized intelligence assets.

In World War II, the film industry grew in power and prestige and so did the influence of Hollywood celebrities. Famous actors and actresses appeared in advertisements and toured the country to encourage citizens to support participation in the war.

Fronts and Propaganda

Although the first working television system was introduced in 1927, few people owned sets because of price and scarcity. Instead, they relied on cinemas to keep informed and educated.

Before and during the war the cinema was the most popular form of entertainment, with people often going two or three times a week. Newsreels shot from the front were played before films and at intermission, usually accompanied by music and inspirational speeches.

The studios, some of which were secret services front companies, produced many war-time favourites, and stars enlisted or reported for duty. In addition, the government released films that were designed to influence behaviour and included everything from buying war bonds and collecting scrap metal to methods of coping with the loss of families and to caution for the presence of enemy spies.

Many actors worked directly as operatives or even agents, and even more assisted the war effort by participating in, producing, directing or supporting propaganda films. Government censorship of mass media was enforced in much of the world during wartime, and not only in the free nations of the world. Germany too relied heavily on censorship and propaganda. And like their counterparts in the UK and USA, German citizens were ‘fed’ a diet of visual and audible (radio) news that was clearly biased or at worst manipulated. All intended to boost morale.

The Players

Hollywood aided in the mobilization for war and its people contributed as spies, combatants, propagandists, documentary and newsreel makers, educators, fund-raisers, entertainers, and morale-boosters.

Hundreds of celebrities eagerly answered the ‘call to arms’ and brought their talents and patriotism to the intelligence services, military, combat, and war information offices.

Book 1 – Hollywood Actors, features men directly involved with the intelligence services. Other actors who served in the armed forces or supported the war effort will be included later in the series.

The Agencies

British Security Coordination (BSC) The BSC was a covert organization surprisingly headquartered in New York City by Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in May 1940. The office, which was established for intelligence and propaganda purposes, was tasked with promoting British interests in the United States, countering Nazi propaganda, and protecting the Atlantic convoys from enemy sabotage. Its ultimate objective was to convince the American diplomatic corps and the public that the nation should join the UK in its fight against Adolf Hitler. This it did by subterfuge, deception and propaganda.

Information Research Department (IRD). A British department in the Foreign Office set up to counter Soviet propaganda and infiltration.

The Intelligence Corps. British Army Corps responsible for gathering, analysing and disseminating military intelligence and also for counter-intelligence and security.

Ministry of Information (MOI) A powerful British government department responsible for publicity and propaganda in the Second World War.

Office of Strategic Services (OSS) A secret US intelligence agency formed during World War II and predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The OSS coordinated subversion, sabotage, covert operations and espionage activities behind enemy lines.

Office of War Information (OWI) US Government agency created during World War II to deliver propaganda both at home and abroad. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other forms of media, the OWI was the connection between the battlefront and civilian communities. The office also established several overseas branches which launched a large-scale information and propaganda campaign abroad.

Political Warfare Executive (PWE) British clandestine organisation created to produce and disseminate both ‘white’ and ‘black’ propaganda, with the aim of damaging enemy morale and sustaining the morale of the occupied countries.

Special Operations Executive (SOE) British World War II covert organisation that trained thousands of operatives (including many from occupied countries), to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements.

NOTE: The film and TV listing for each actor is representative only and not a complete history.

EDDIE ALBERT

Edward Albert Heimberger (22 April 1906 – 26 May 2005) American actor

Films/TV: Roman Holiday (1954 Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), The Heartbreak Kid (1973 Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor). He also appeared in the Brother Rat films, the TV comedy Green Acres and regularly appeared in Falcon Crest.

Prior to joining the Hollywood community, Albert toured Mexico as a clown and high-wire artist with the Escalante Brothers Circus - but was secretly working for US Army Intelligence photographing German U-boats in Mexican harbours. Enlisting with the US Navy in 1942, he piloted a landing craft during the invasion of Tarawa rescuing 47 Marines and supervised the rescue of 30 others under heavy fire. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat V for his bravery.

In 1951, Albert was named in Red Channels, an anti-Communist booklet compiled by the right wing journal Counterattack to expose Communist influence in Hollywood. Eddie’s wife Margo, a Mexican actress, was not a communist but had friends in the party and was well known for her far left politics. Effectively blacklisted from employment, Albert eventually had his named cleared and was able to return to work – due in large part to his WWII service.

DID YOU KNOW?

The codename for the German espionage operation in Latin America during World War II was Bolivar?

Between 1940 and 1942, German spies organised an extensive network in Mexico which maintained contact with other spy rings in South America and attempted to obtain information from the United States. In addition, the largest Japanese spy ring was actually located in Mexico.

Microdots taped inside the label of an envelope sent by German agents from Mexico City to Lisbon; Kempei officers aboard a train

JEAN-PIERRE AUMONT

Jean-Pierre Philippe Salomons (5 January 1911 – 30 January 2001) French actor

Films: Assignment in Brittany (1943 as Captain Pierre Matard - espionage war movie), The Cross of Lorraine (1943 - a Stalag 17-like story of French POW's held in a German war camp).

Although remembered for his romance with Grace Kelly, who he was dating at the time she met Prince Rainier of Monaco, his contributions to WWII via the Free French Forces must not be under estimated.

Following the filming of The Cross of Lorraine, he joined the Free French Forces and was Aide de Camp to General Diego Brosset, commander of the 1st Free French Division. He was responsible for maintaining, protecting and couriering