Secret agent

Spy redirects here, for an alternate use see Spy Magazine.

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 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.

Mention Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent.

Fictional secret agents:

• Mr. Verloc in The Secret Agent
• James Bond
• Jerry Cornelius
• Harry Palmer
• John Drake in Danger Man
• Number 6 in The Prisoner
• John Steed and Emma Peel in The Avengers
• La Femme Nikita
• Jason Bourne

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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"Spy" is the title of a song by They Might Be Giants from their 1994 album John Henry.

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