The Most Famous Spies of All Time

• Country of citizenship: England
• Spied for: England

Walsingham was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I, known as her spymaster, and made it his mission to sniff out Catholics during the era of the newly formed English Protestant Church. Using a team of cryptographers, forgers, and informers, he helped send many Catholics to their deaths including Mary, Queen of Scots.

• Country of citizenship: United Colonies (which became the United States)
• Spied for: the Continental Army, American Revolutionary War

Hale was a soldier who traveled behind enemy lines in New York, disguised as a Dutch schoolmaster to gather intelligence on British troop movements. While attempting to return to American-controlled soil, he was captured with incriminating documents and subsequently executed by the British.

• Country of citizenship: United States
• Spied for: The Confederate Army, U.S. Civil War

A powerful socialite in Washington, D.C., Rose O’Neal Greenhow led a ring of pro-South intelligence operatives in Union territory. Her work is credited with helping the Confederate Army win the Battle of Bull Run.

• Country of citizenship: United States
• Spied for: the U.S. Government/the Union Army

Abolitionist Elizabeth Van Lew, the granddaughter of prominent abolitionist Hilary Baker, was from Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital. During the Civil War, Van Lew began caring for wounded Union soldiers at a Confederate prison. Her position allowed her to gather intelligence from the prisoners to pass along to Union commanders, and to assist in prison escapes. She eventually became the leader of an indispensable spy ring called the “Richmond Underground.”

• Country of citizenship: United Colonies/American
• Spied for: the Continental Army/American Revolution

James Armistead Lafayette was an enslaved man granted permission to serve in the Continental Army, where he served under the Marquis de Lafayette, and took his name in tribute. He aided the colonies by pretending to be a runaway slave and crossing enemy lines to gather intelligence on the British Army while also feeding the British false information. His reports led to the Continental Army’s decisive victory at the Battle of Yorktown.

• Country of citizenship: Austria
• Spied for: the Russian Imperial Army

Austro-Hungarian military officer Alfred Redl was the chief of a counterintelligence corps called Evidenzbureau. A leading figure in advancing espionage tactics before WWI, Redl was then succeeded by Major Maximilian Ronge, who discovered that Redl was also a spy, acting as a well-paid informant; Redl committed suicide upon being exposed. Although his reasons for double-crossing his country will never be understood, historians believe his intel may have been responsible for Austria-Hungary’s massive losses during WWI.

• Country of citizenship: England
• Spied for: Germany, England, Japan, and the Soviet Union

British Intelligence officer Sidney Reilly, known as the “Ace of Spies,” is purported to have spied for at least four countries. Active during WWI and the Russo-Japanese war, Reilly, who was born Sigmund Rosenblum in Odessa, was uncovered during a failed assassination attempt on Vladimir Lenin. He was eventually captured, tortured, and executed by the Soviets.

• Country of citizenship: the Netherlands
• Spied for: France, Germany (allegedly)

Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod was an exotic dancer and courtesan living in Paris during WWI who agreed to spy for France in German-occupied Belgium. She was later accused of being a double agent for the Germans. Although her role as a spy is contested, and historical documents suggest that she never gave any information of consequence to the Germans, the French tried and executed her by firing squad.

• Country of citizenship: United States
• Spied for: Germany

Born in South Africa, Frederick “Fritz” Duquesne acted as a secret agent and spymaster during both World Wars. His feats include infiltrating the British Army and becoming an officer, escaping enemy prisons four times, and planting bombs on British ships while disguised as a scientist. The FBI uncovered Duquesne’s infamous spy ring in 1941 and convicted 33 of its members.

• Country of citizenship: Soviet Union
• Spied for: Soviet Union

Born in Imperial Russia but raised in Germany, Richard Sorge was a Soviet military intelligence officer who worked undercover as a German journalist in both the Nazi regime and the Japanese Empire. As a prominent Soviet spy before and during WWII, he is widely considered one of the greatest spies in history, having alerted the Soviets of Hitler’s plan to attack the Soviet Union. He was eventually arrested in Japan, where he was tortured and executed by hanging.

• Country of citizenship: Canada
• Spied for: England

Fighter pilot and spymaster William Stephenson served as a British agent in New York City during WWII under the codename “Intrepid.” In addition to recruiting agents, he organized all British overseas espionage activities in the Western Hemisphere and even had a secret Canadian training camp. He is credited with influencing American public opinion toward joining the war, and is among several spies said to be the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s fictional character James Bond.

• Country of citizenship: United States
• Spied for: United States

A German-born U.S. citizen, William Sebold was visiting family in Germany when he was coerced into becoming a spy by several Nazi officials. He instead became the first double agent for the FBI, sending the Germans fake intelligence while receiving legitimate information from them. His work was instrumental in taking down the famous Duquesne spy ring.

• Country of citizenship: England
• Spied for: Soviet Union

Rudolph Abel was born in England as William August Fisher and moved to the Soviet Union in 1921. In 1948, he joined the KGB and had several aliases. He was sent to work in a New York City spy ring, posing as a photographer, where he utilized short-wave radio and hollowed-out coins containing microphotographs of intelligence ciphers. Although the FBI eventually arrested him, he was later returned to the Soviet Union in exchange for downed U-2 pilot Gary Powers, where he received a hero’s welcome. His story is partially told in the 2015 film “Bridge of Spies.”

• Country of citizenship: England
• Spied for: England

Born in Mauritius of French descent, Lise de Baissac was a Special Operations Executive (SEO), and one of the first female agents to parachute into Nazi-occupied France. There, she helped arm and organize French Resistance fighters while pretending to be an amateur archaeologist. She bicycled around France collecting information and weapons, organizing on behalf of the Allies, and assisting other operatives in returning to England. Despite numerous run-ins with German soldiers, she was never caught.

• Country of citizenship: United States
• Spied for: United Kingdom, United States

Virginia Hall operated within the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS). She lived undercover in Vichy France and organized resistance movements during WWII, helping other agents access money and weapons, and securing safe houses, medical treatment, and escape routes for downed pilots. The Germans considered her the most dangerous of all Allied spies and called her “The Limping Lady,” as she was missing part of a leg and wore a prosthetic.

• Country of citizenship: Germany, United Kingdom (stripped)
• Spied for: KGB/Soviet Union

German nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs fled Germany for England in 1933 when the Nazis rose to power, eventually finding work in Britain’s “Tube Alloy” atomic project, as well as the Manhattan Project. He organized with other famous spies including Morris and Lona Cohen to pass Atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. Fuchs confessed to spying in 1950 and served nine years in a British prison before returning to East Berlin to a hero’s welcome.

• Country of citizenship: Israel
• Spied for: Soviet Union

Austrian-born Yisrael Bar was an Israeli military expert whose broad knowledge gained him a high position in Israel’s Ministry of Defense. Bar, a Soviet spy, was not even Jewish but had infiltrated the Israeli government under the assumed identity of a man who had been dead for years. It will never be known exactly what, or how much, information he passed on to the KGB because Bar remained silent throughout imprisonment and died in prison.

• Country of citizenship: United Kingdom, Soviet Union
• Spied for: Soviet Union

During the Cold War, Philby studied at Cambridge where he exhibited communist tendencies. He later became the head of a counterespionage section of the British Secret Intelligence Services. He was the most successful Cambridge Five spy ring member who passed British secrets to the Soviets from the 1930s to the 1950s but defected to the Soviet Union before he was found out and was never prosecuted.

• Country of citizenship: United Kingdom
• Spied for: Soviet Union

Born to communist-sympathizing parents, Norwood was herself a devout communist, and as an assistant to the director of the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, an atomic research center, she passed Atomic secrets to the Soviets for 37 years before finally being exposed at age 87, well into her retirement. Norwood asserted that her work helped avert World War III. She was never prosecuted and has been described as the most important British female agent in KGB history.

• Country of citizenship: United States
• Spied for: Soviet Union

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union in the ’40s as part of a group that leaked atomic bomb diagrams. While Ethel and her brother were likely responsible for recruiting Julius who served as a courier, Ethel’s role as a spy remains unclear. Prosecutors later admitted to pushing the death penalty on Ethel to coerce her husband into confessing his crimes. They were the first American citizens ever to be executed for espionage.

• Country of citizenship: United States
• Spied for: China

Born in China, and becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen, Chin worked as a translator for the U.S. government for 37 years, in both the U.S. Army and the CIA. He was one of China’s most valuable foreign agents during the Cold War, handing over profiles of CIA agents and information on foreign policy initiatives, including Nixon’s plans to open relations with China. It is believed that Chin – who committed suicide upon being convicted of espionage – made over $1 million spying for China.

• Country of citizenship: Soviet Union
• Spied for: United States

Adolf Tolkachev was an electronics engineer who distrusted his government and sought out U.S. intelligence agents repeatedly before finally being hired as an agent. He passed along valuable information regarding Soviet aircraft and weapons technology, and the CIA saw to it that he received medical checkups and was sent banned rock music for his children. Tolkachev was compromised by a former American agent and was arrested and executed.

• Country of citizenship: United States
• Spied for: Soviet Union

Navy officer and communications specialist John Anthony Walker, leaked documents to the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1985, including key information that gave the Soviets the ability to solve ciphers and locate U.S. submarines at any time. His actions were the largest Naval security breach in history. Walker was convicted, given three life sentences, and died in prison in 2014.

• Country of citizenship: China
• Spied for: China

Chinese opera singer Shi Pei Pu, who performed in drag, worked in Beijing and became a spy shortly after meeting French embassy diplomat Bernard Boursicot. Pei Pu not only pressured Boursicot to hand over classified documents, but the two went on to have a 20-year sexual relationship. Boursicot eventually brought his lover to France, where they were both arrested and convicted of espionage.

• Country of citizenship: Soviet Union, United Kingdom
• Spied for: Soviet Union, United Kingdom

Once a KGB colonel, Gordievsky became disillusioned with Soviet politics and served as a double agent for British secret services from 1974 to 1985. One of the highest-ranking KGB officers to ever supply secrets to Western intelligence, his position was eventually compromised, and he was snuck out of the Soviet Union with the help of the British. He was sentenced to death in absentia for treason.

• Country of citizenship: United States
• Spied for: Soviet Union, Russia

Counterintelligence officer Aldrich “Rick” Ames was one of the most infamous and damaging CIA moles in history. He used his position as an analyst to cripple U.S. investigations in the Soviet Union and made over $2 million in exchange. Ames also named and compromised dozens of CIA assets in the Soviet Union, leading to many imprisonments and executions. He was eventually caught in 1994 and is serving a life sentence without parole.

• Country of citizenship: United States
• Spied for: Soviet Union

In exchange for over $1.4 million in diamonds, bank funds, and cash, FBI agent Robert Hanssen provided classified information to the KGB from 1979 until he was caught in 2001. He gave up the identities of U.S. operatives, details on nuclear operations, and the existence of an eavesdropping tunnel under the Soviet Embassy in D.C. Hanssen is considered the most damaging spy in FBI history and was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences. He died at the United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility, also known as ADX Florence.

• Country of citizenship: United States
• Spied for: China, Germany, Israel, Switzerland

Indian-born engineer Noshir Gowadia was one of the designers of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, who was arrested in 2005 on espionage charges, including selling defense information to China and other countries and designing stealth equipment for Chinese use. He was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to 32 years in prison.

• Country of citizenship: Soviet Union
• Spied for: United Kingdom

A Russian military intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal acted as a double agent in the ’90s and early 2000s. He was convicted of treason by the Russians in 2004, but in 2010 was released as part of a spy swap, and settled in England. On March 4, 2018, he and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in an alleged attempted murder, but both survived the attack. The Russian agents under suspicion of carrying out the attack are presumed to be residing in Russia.

• Country of citizenship: United States
• Spied for: Cuba

An intelligence analyst at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, Ana Montes served as a spy for Cuba for 17 years starting in the mid ’80s. She exposed four U.S. spies in Cuba and compromised highly classified programs including a clandestine U.S. Army camp in El Salvador. She was arrested in 2001 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.