Espionage has ever worked its silent but potent magic to influence world affairs. Double agents, master cryptanalysts, these spies worked in the dark, collecting secrets that tipped wars, overthrew governments, and steered history itself. Here are 10 well-known spies whose courageous operations changed the fate of nations.
10. Sterling Hayden: Hollywood’s Silver Star Spy
Before he was Hollywood’s “Most Beautiful Man,” Sterling Hayden was parachuting into Croatia and coordinating clandestine shipping operations for the OSS. Hayden’s sailing background made him an ideal hire for America’s WWII spy organization, and he didn’t dabble – he was made a captain and awarded the Silver Star for his clandestine heroics. Following the war, he went back to the big screen with roles in classics such as Dr. Strangelove, but his off-screen escapades could make for a movie script.
9. Elizabeth Van Lew & Mary Jane Richards: The Union’s Secret Network
Elizabeth Van Lew was not your typical Richmond socialite. She operated a twelve-man spy ring for the Union, hiding messages in the backs of book covers and springing people from prison. Her secret ally? Mary Jane Richards (also known as Mary Elizabeth Bowser), a one-time slave who had a photographic memory and became an infiltrator for the Confederate White House. Richards feigned being illiterate while memorizing Jefferson Davis’s war plans and transmitting them to Van Lew. Their intelligence network was so good that, as Elizabeth recorded in her journal, “Most generally our reliable news is gathered from negroes, and they certainly show wisdom, discretion and prudence, which is wonderful.” These two demonstrated that espionage doesn’t have to be for men in trench coats—it can be for anyone with brains and courage.
8. Belle Boyd: The Confederate’s Fearless Courier
Belle Boyd was a force of nature. She fired a Union soldier who threatened her mother and later flirted with Union officers, listening in on their plans. Boyd habitually sent clandestine dispatches to Confederate leaders and even ran across battlefields under fire to alert Stonewall Jackson to Union movements. Her bravery was rewarded with a personal letter of appreciation from Jackson himself. Belle’s tale is evidence that the best spies often lie in plain sight.
7. Rose O’Neal Greenhow: The Socialite Who Defeated Armies
Rose O’Neal Greenhow was Washington, D.C.’s go-to insider. She socialized with presidents and generals, but when the Civil War erupted, she was the Confederacy’s wild card. Greenhow’s spying assisted in the Confederate victory at the Battle of First Manassas, and she earned a letter of thanks from Colonel Thomas Jordan: “Our President and our General direct me to thank you. We rely upon you for further information. The Confederacy owes you a debt.” Under house arrest, Rose continued to dish out the secrets, showing that high society is a battlefield, too.
6. Graham Greene: Literary Mastermind and MI6 Agent
Graham Greene was more than a virtuoso of the written word—he was a virtuoso of deception. As he wrote novels that would result in Nobel Prize nominations, Greene worked for MI6, the storied British intelligence agency. He conducted clandestine operations, such as installing a spy within the Vichy French government. Greene’s real-life exploits in espionage translated to his thrillers’ gritty realism, crossing the line between truth and fiction.
5. Moe Berg: Baseball’s Brainiest Spy
Moe Berg was a Princeton-educated, third-string catcher fluent in eight languages. But when WWII broke out, Berg traded in his mitt for an assignment. The OSS deployed him behind enemy lines to interview Nazi scientists, and he was instructed to shoot if Germany were on the verge of developing an atomic bomb. Berg’s tale is the ultimate crossover—baseball and international espionage, with a sprinkling of Ivy League intelligence.
4. Harriet Tubman: The Master of Intelligence of the Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman is famous for guiding enslaved individuals to freedom, but she was also a pioneering Union spy and military commander. Tubman gathered intelligence behind enemy lines, commanded raids that liberated hundreds, and never lost a single passenger. Her skills as a hunter and fieldworker are the best an operative could ask for, and her bravery is unmatched. Tubman’s legacy is so strong that she’s destined to be the first woman and the first African American on U.S. currency.
3. Julia Child: From OSS Registry to Culinary Icon
Julia Child was monitoring classified papers for the OSS in China and Ceylon before she became America’s best-loved chef. She minimized her contribution as “only a lowly file clerk,” but she was Chief of the OSS Registry, working with secrets that might alter the direction of the war. In 1943, she even helped develop a shark repellent for the Navy—though it was better at boosting morale than scaring off sharks. Child’s wartime service earned her the Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service, and her story proves that spies come in all flavors.
2. Josephine Baker: The Jazz Age Diva Who Danced Through Danger
Josephine Baker wasn’t just a superstar—she was a secret agent for the French Resistance. Her celebrity led to invitations to parties with Axis officials, where she collected information and smuggled it to the Allies in invisible ink on sheet music. Baker’s bravery won her the Croix de guerre and the Legion of Honor, and later on, she was a civil rights activist, boycotting performances for segregated audiences and delivering speeches at the March on Washington. As she declared at the rally, “I am no longer a young woman, friends. My life is behind me. There is not too much fire burning inside me. And before it goes out, I want you to use what is left to light that fire in you.”. So that you may continue, and so that you may do those things which I have done.” Baker’s is a living proof of the strength of art, activism, and spying.
1. Dashiell Hammett: From Pinkerton Detective to Proletarian Writer
The transformation of Dashiell Hammett from being a Pinkerton “fink” to being a Communist Party activist is the very stuff of noir myth. He began as a detective, hired to bust up strikes and police labor radicals, but his experiences in the trenches resulted in gritty, realistic crime fiction that revolutionized the genre. Hammett’s books, such as The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man, created the American “private eye” and returned murder to the sort of people who murder for genuine reasons. He battled fascism, advocated civil rights, and even spent time in federal prison for not cooperating by giving up names during the Red Scare. As Raymond Chandler wrote, “Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse.” He set these individuals down on paper as they are.” Hammett’s life and career illustrate that occasionally, the most effective spies are the ones who translate their secrets into tales lasting generations.