When you think of the most celebrated names in history, you probably picture their public triumphs, not clandestine missions. Yet, 10 famous people slipped into the shadows, gathering secrets and feeding foreign powers while the world cheered their achievements. Buckle up for a whirlwind tour of literary legends, royalty, and Hollywood icons who were, in fact, covert operatives.
10 famous people
10 Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl is adored worldwide for whimsical tales such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. The beloved children’s author also penned the screenplay for the Bond film You Only Live Twice and kept an impressive stash of adult literature hidden from his younger fans.
What many readers never imagined is that, before his literary fame, Dahl was recruited by British intelligence to spy on the United States during the early days of World War II, when America clung to an isolationist stance.
His assignment was as unorthodox as it sounds: mingle with, and even sleep alongside, wealthy American women in order to extract political gossip and possibly influence U.S. policy. The British hoped that intimate access would yield valuable intel.
Although there is no record of a direct order to bed socialites, Dahl embraced the role, treating romantic encounters as his primary espionage tool. He even complained that one target, Clare Boothe Luce—wife of a prominent Time magazine publisher—was “too frisky,” only to be told to get back into the bedroom.
In practice, Dahl proved more entertaining than effective. His reports boiled down to idle gossip, such as rumors of an affair involving President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he was widely regarded as a poor keeper of secrets.
9 Ernest Hemingway
In his twilight years, the legendary novelist Ernest Hemingway found himself under relentless FBI surveillance, driven by Director J. Edgar Hoover’s conviction that the author was feeding information to the KGB.
The constant watch drove Hemingway into a paranoid spiral, prompting friends to fear for his sanity. By 1960, he checked into the Mayo Clinic seeking relief, only to end his own life a year later.
Historical investigations now confirm that Hoover’s suspicions were not unfounded. Declassified KGB archives reveal Hemingway met Soviet operatives in 1941 and repeatedly expressed a willingness to spy for them.
Although he never handed over anything of real value, his attempts were earnest. After his initial contact, Hemingway quit writing for a period and offered his services to U.S. intelligence, a move some interpret as a bid to gather intelligence for the Soviets.
He was assigned to patrol for German U‑boats, a stint that yielded little—perhaps a single sighting—but he kept detailed coded notes that some scholars now suspect were intended for Soviet handlers.
8 The Duchess Of Windsor
Wallis Simpson, the American socialite who famously prompted King Edward VIII to abdicate the British throne in 1936, later became the Duchess of Windsor. Their romance reads like a fairy‑tale, but the darker chapters involve alleged collaboration with Nazi officials.
Rumors suggested the duke’s affection was not reciprocated, and that Wallis carried on an affair with Joachim von Ribbentrop, Germany’s foreign minister. Supposedly, von Ribbentrop sent her 17 carnations daily—a symbolic nod to the number of their nightly rendezvous.
Through this liaison, Wallis allegedly passed sensitive information to the Nazis. When the couple retreated to Biarritz, she gave von Ribbentrop her hotel address, which the Germans promptly broadcast on radio, using it as propaganda to claim the British aristocracy were fleeing.
Edward himself was not innocent. FBI files indicate he was as eager as his wife to assist the Nazi cause, maintaining friendly ties with Adolf Hitler before his abdication and even entertaining the idea of becoming a German puppet.
These tangled loyalties paint a picture of a royal couple whose personal dramas dovetailed with the darkest machinations of World War II.
7 Cary Grant
Cary Grant’s on‑screen suave spy persona in Hitchcock’s Notorious was no coincidence. During World War II, the British actor turned into a real‑life Nazi hunter, feeding crucial intel to British authorities.
Biographer Charles Higham documented that while fellow star Errol Flynn flirted with Nazi sympathies—meeting Adolf Hitler before the war—Grant exposed Flynn’s pro‑Nazi leanings to British agents in Washington and kept tabs on other Hollywood sympathizers.
Grant also collaborated with Roald Dahl and other British operatives to craft propaganda aimed at discrediting America First and other isolationist factions within the United States.
Although he never saw combat, Grant contributed financially, donating his salaries from The Philadelphia Story and Arsenic and Old Lace to both British and U.S. war‑relief efforts. In recognition, King George VI awarded him the King’s Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom in 1947.
Official MI6 reports and diaries from participants confirm Grant’s covert involvement, cementing his legacy as a Hollywood hero who fought the Axis from behind the scenes.
6 Arnon Milchan
Israeli entrepreneur and prolific producer Arnon Milchan, whose résumé includes blockbusters like Pretty Woman, Fight Club, and Gone Girl, also moonlighted as a clandestine operative for Israel.
Milchan’s wealth enabled Israel to channel funds through his bank accounts to purchase helicopters, missiles, and even facilitate the nation’s nuclear ambitions. He also brokered a quid‑pro‑quo with South Africa, swapping uranium for diplomatic cover.
Beyond financing, Milchan leveraged his charm to infiltrate a German nuclear facility, persuading officials to let him photograph sensitive equipment. Those images were smuggled back to Israel, aiding its own nuclear program.
His covert role is not rumor; Milchan himself admitted, “I did it for my country, and I’m proud of it.” While peers like Robert De Niro noted his secretive activities, Milchan faced no legal repercussions.
5 Leon Theremin
Leon Theremin, a Russian genius best known for the ethereal instrument that bears his name, also became a master of espionage for the Soviet Union.
After patenting his touch‑less instrument in the United States in 1928, Theremin returned to the USSR in 1938, where he was promptly detained and assigned to a secret laboratory within the Gulag system alongside top engineers.
There, he invented the Buran eavesdropping system, a sophisticated listening device aimed at Soviet adversaries. He also created “The Thing,” a passive listening gadget that required no power source.
In 1945, Soviet schoolchildren presented the U.S. ambassador with a wooden seal that concealed “The Thing.” The ambassador, unaware, hung it in his home, while Soviet agents stationed in a nearby van listened to every conversation.
The device remained undetected for seven years until British broadcasters intercepted its radio emissions, leading U.S. investigators to the concealed bug. Theremin continued working for the KGB until 1966, after being released from the Gulag in 1947.
4 Kim Philby
Kim Philby rose to the pinnacle of British intelligence, heading MI6’s anti‑Soviet division—only to be secretly working for the very enemy he was meant to thwart.
His dual allegiance allowed him to funnel critical information to the Soviet Union, compromising countless operations. Philby’s betrayal remained hidden until a KGB informant tipped off the U.S. government about a network of five Soviet spies embedded within British intelligence.
When the net began to close, Philby attempted to protect himself by betraying some of his own colleagues, but the pressure proved too great. He was forced to resign and ultimately defected to the USSR in 1963.
Even after his escape, Philby’s legacy haunted Western intelligence agencies. The CIA devoted a decade to hunting supposed moles, convinced that their own ranks had been infiltrated at the highest levels.
3 Robert Hanssen
The FBI’s own counter‑intelligence division was compromised by Robert Hanssen, an agent who operated as a Soviet mole for roughly two decades.
Beginning in 1985, Hanssen clandestinely harvested sensitive computer disks and delivered them to Soviet handlers, amassing over 6,000 pages of classified material, including numerous Top‑Secret documents.
His treachery earned him a hefty payday—about $600,000—though the exact sum remains contested. Remarkably, Hanssen continued his espionage even after the Soviet Union dissolved, feeding intel to the newly formed Russian Federation.
His downfall came in February 2001 when he was caught in the act of dropping off documents. His wife, unaware of his double life, testified during a polygraph that Hanssen had told her he was “tricking” the Russians.
2 Mata Hari
Mata Hari, the Dutch exotic dancer who dazzled Parisian crowds during World War I, leveraged her sensual performances to become a German spy.
The French, believing she worked for them, recruited her to relay any intelligence gleaned from her aristocratic lovers. Unbeknownst to them, she had already accepted a similar offer from the Germans.
Her activities attracted French suspicion, leading to surveillance and eventual arrest. She confessed that the German intelligence service paid her 20,000 francs for espionage, though she maintained she never delivered valuable information.
Despite claims of innocence, Mata Hari was condemned and executed in 1917. Her final words before the firing squad—“I am ready”—remain etched in history as a testament to her dramatic life and tragic end.
1 Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel, the iconic designer behind the timeless fragrance Chanel No. 5, also harbored a secret life as a Nazi collaborator during the German occupation of France.
Chanel’s wartime romance with Baron Hans Gunther von Dincklage, a German intelligence officer, was more than a love affair—it was a conduit for espionage. She even tried to exploit Nazi Aryanization laws to wrest control of her perfume brand from a Jewish-owned company.
Officially recruited as a German spy, Chanel received the code name “Westminster” and the agent number “F‑7124.” Her primary mission involved recruiting informants and feeding intelligence to the Nazis.
In 1943, Chanel and her lover traveled to Berlin to offer their services to Heinrich Himmler, who saw her as a potential influence on British policy. Although Winston Churchill declined to meet her, Chanel managed to escape execution, fleeing to Switzerland with von Dincklage’s help.
Her post‑war life remained largely untouched by her wartime activities, allowing her to continue shaping fashion history while her espionage past stayed hidden.