List of Famous Spys

Jonathan Jay Pollard is a former intelligence analyst for the United States government. In 1987, as part of a plea agreement, Pollard pleaded guilty to spying for and providing top-secret classified information to Israel. He was sentenced to life in prison for violations of the Espionage Act, making him the only American to receive a life sentence for passing classified information to an ally of the U.S.

Nobusuke Kishi was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960. He is the maternal grandfather of Shinzo Abe, twice prime minister from 2006 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020.

Refaat Ali Suleiman Al-Gammal, better known as Raafat Al-Haggan in Egypt and as Jack Bitton in Israel, was an Egyptian spy who spent 17 years performing clandestine operations in Israel.

Anna Vasilyevna Chapman is a Russian intelligence agent, media personality and model who was arrested in the United States on 27 June 2010 as part of the Illegals Program spy ring. At the time of her arrest she was accused of espionage on behalf of the Russian Federation's external intelligence agency, the Sluzhba vneshney razvedki (SVR). She had previously gained British citizenship through marriage, which she used to gain residency in the U.S.

Ibrahim Shaheen, a Palestinian man and his Egyptian wife Inshirah Moussa worked for the Israeli intelligence service Mossad from 1967 until their arrest in 1974. Shaheen was executed in Egypt in 1977, while his wife and children fled to Israel and converted to Judaism. The case was widely published in the Israeli media in the 1980s.

Sir Walter Raleigh , also spelled Ralegh, was an English landed gentleman, writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy and explorer. He was a cousin of Sir Richard Grenville and younger half-brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England. Raleigh was one of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era.

Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her knowledge and contacts, built up through extensive travels in Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along with T. E. Lawrence, Bell helped support the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan as well as in Iraq.

Alexander Joseph Patrick Wilson was an English writer, spy and MI6 officer. He wrote under the names Alexander Wilson, Geoffrey Spencer, Gregory Wilson, and Michael Chesney. After his death, his family discovered that he had been a serial polygamist who had lied to many people. As of 2018, documents that could shed light on his activities remain classified as "sensitive" by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, under section 3(4) of the Public Records Act 1958. The effect of his deceptions on his wives and descendants were dramatised in the 2018 BBC miniseries Mrs Wilson, in which his granddaughter, actress Ruth Wilson, portrayed her grandmother, Alison.

Morris "Moe" Berg was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball, who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Although he played 15 seasons in the major leagues, almost entirely for four American League teams, Berg was never more than an average player and was better known for being "the brainiest guy in baseball." Casey Stengel once described Berg as "the strangest man ever to play baseball".

Mehmet Eymür is a retired Turkish intelligence official. In 1995-6 he led the counter-terrorism department of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), which he joined as a student in 1965 as a "pursuit officer". He was the right-hand man of MIT deputy undersecretary Hiram Abas.