[angelmb]

and all what I know is from cinema !

any info, link and so about 'real' spies (one is enough) is really welcome

oh well, looks like I have a winner

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/hanssen/overview.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hanssen

any other good source of info about this guy?

[angelmb]

oh well, happens that the text book of my little brother includes Hanssen as example, so time to get info about another spy, this seems interesting

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Kim Philby, the British traitor who allegedly inspired accused FBI spy Robert Philip Hanssen, was arguably the most successful and damaging Soviet double agent of the Cold War period…

[SimeyTheLimey]

I'll nominate a couple. Garbo was probably one of the most effective double agents in history. He convinced the Germans that they had a spy network in Britain during the war and helped convince them that the invasion would come in Calais, not Normandy. He may have single handedly turned the war. He was so effective that he was awarded the British MBE and the Iron Cross.

Another hugely important one was Oleg Penkovsky. He spied for the US in the run up to, and during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Because of him Kennedy was not negotiating blind when he went into the crisis. His information arguably helped avoid a nuclear war. He was caught and shot by the Soviet GRU, though some accounts suggest that in fact he was cremated alive.

Those two, I think, eclipse an egotistical money grabbing traitor like Hansson.

[analogika]

Another famous, though largely unimportant, spy: Ian Fleming.
(He started writing the James Bond novels partly as a cover.)


And Mata Hari.

[angelmb]

Awesome, Garbo was spaniard and I have never know about it, oh well, we (spaniards) were so busy with our silly civil war by then.

[nonhuman]

The Rosenbergs.