Secret agent

A secret agent (also known as spy or covert operative) is a person involved in espionage.

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 secrent agents:

• Austin Powers
• In Like Flint
• The Man From U.N.C.L.E
• Get Smart
• Johnny English

See also:

• espionage
• intelligence service