Secret agent
- Spy redirects here, for alternate use see Spy (disambiguation)
A secret agent (also known as spy or covert operative) is a person involved in espionage.
See also: intelligence service, identity creation
Real-life secret agents
See espionage for a list of real-life secret agents or alleged secret agents.
Fictional secret agents
Since not much is publicly known about real-life secret agents, the popular conception of the secret agent has been formed largely by 20th and 21st century literature and cinema. Similar to the character of the private eye, the secret agent is usually a loner, sometimes amoral, an existential hero operating outside the everyday constraints of society.
Joseph Conrad wrote a novel entitled The Secret Agent. The British spy television series Danger Man was broadcast in the United States under the title, Secret Agent.
James Bond, the protagonist of Ian Fleming's novels who went on to spawn an extremely successful film franchise, is probably the most famous fictional secret agent of all.
Fictional secret agents:
- Jack Bauer in the Fox TV Series 24
- Mr. Verloc in Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent
- Jerry Cornelius
- Harry Palmer
- Modesty Blaise
- John Drake in Danger Man
- Number 6 in The Prisoner
- John Steed and Emma Peel in The Avengers
- La Femme Nikita
- Jason Bourne in Robert Ludlum's novels
- Elihu 'Sam' Nivens in The Puppet Masters
- Alex Rider
- Kim Possible
- Sam, Clover and Alex from Totally Spies
- Joanna Dark in the Nintendo 64 video game Perfect Dark
- Nick Fury, Black Widow, and Elektra Natchios in the Marvel Comics Universe
- Sydney Bristow in Alias
- Sam (Spynet) in Spynet
Parodies of secret agents:
- Austin Powers
- In Like Flint
- The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
- Get Smart
- Johnny English
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