From Stagecraft to Spy Craft: Celebrity Spies

From Stagecraft to Spy Craft: Celebrity Spies

This article relates to Beverly Hills Spy

The history of celebrities dabbling in espionage is a fascinating one. As Ronald Drabkin illustrates in Beverly Hills Spy, famous people often have opportunities to gather intelligence from high-value sources. Who would not want to socialize with a beautiful or handsome star?

One of the most audacious celebrity spies during World War II was Josephine Baker, an American-born French singer, dancer, and actress. When France declared war on Germany in September 1939, Baker was recruited by French military intelligence as an "honorable correspondent" and worked directly with the head of French counterintelligence in Paris. She attended parties at embassies, ministries, night clubs, and other social gatherings, charming German officials while gathering information that she transmitted to French counterintelligence contacts.

When the Nazis invaded and occupied France, Baker supported the French Resistance by leveraging her celebrity with Nazi Party officials at parties and diplomatic functions. According to the National World War II Museum, Baker "collected information on German troop movements, and what harbors or airfields were in action." She was not only fearless in her spy craft, but confident and clever, as well. "She wrote down intelligence on her hands and arms, pinning notes inside her underwear. She did so knowing she would never face a strip-search—and she was right," the museum profile states.

One of the twentieth century's most magnetic actresses was also linked to espionage. Marlene Dietrich broke with her home country to become a citizen of another when WWII erupted across Europe. In the 1930s, Dietrich was Germany's most famous actress in Hollywood, but when Hitler and the Nazis took control of the country, she opposed them and "sided with her adopted country [the United States], becoming a citizen in 1941." But her new loyalty did not preclude her from suspicion: declassified FBI files in 2002 revealed that her new homeland considered her a spy for Germany.

The sultry Dietrich performed for U.S. troops throughout WWII as an act of patriotism and was (not surprisingly) a big hit among the soldiers. She was not, however, a hit with J. Edgar Hoover. The director of the FBI was suspicious of Dietrich and initiated a formal espionage investigation against her from 1942 to 1944. According to a Guardian article, Dietrich "offered to prove her loyalty to the United States by becoming a spy for the country in February 1944." She did so by conducting a series of United Service Organizations (USO) tours across Europe in 1944, during which she provided the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) "with intel and updates on the parts of Europe that were freed from fascists." In 1945, President Harry Truman awarded Dietrich with the Presidential Medal of Freedom—one of the highest civilian awards in the United States—for her work entertaining the troops. It was an accomplishment "she was most proud of in her life."

These are just two of the many stories of stars-turned-spies during wartime. You can read about other celebrity spies in the BookBrowse archives here and here.

Poster of Josephine Baker advertising her performance at the Strand Theater, 1951, courtesy of National Museum of African American History & Culture

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This "beyond the book article" relates to Beverly Hills Spy. It originally ran in March 2024 and has been updated for the February 2025 paperback edition. Go to magazine.