n this day and age of full transparency, there is one operation the CIA ran that has still not been revealed. It wasn’t so much to accomplish a mission but to test out a theory on popularity and celebrity. Many years ago, a plan was hatched to see if a celebrity could be created, that is an intelligence operative become a celebrity and then the long term plan was to sue this person to mould public opinion the way that that the intelligence agencies wish. As a test, a young military intelligence agent took a new name and identity even changing his country of origin. He had the look and they made the connections and soon he was in films achieving leading man status. His rise was quick as was his almost complete disappearance five or six years later going from Hollywood films to the occasional TV show appearance and straight to video movies coupled with years of no activity at all. This was due to changing priorities at the CIA as well as the feeling they had proved their point so he was given a huge pension and allowed to pursue acting when he felt like it but without the supercharged backing. He was so into the role that he didn’t say a word about it to any of his partners (one of whom was a very famous female sex symbol to a certain generation) before his death. It’s ironic because one of his leading man roles in his heyday was in this film where identity was a theme.
Lee Majors? Parker Stevenson?
ReplyDeleteYou miss the bit where it says 'before his death'?
DeleteWild guess Vince Edwards Dr. Ben Casey once dated Ann Margret?
ReplyDeleteDudley Moore.
ReplyDeleteI think this is it...
DeleteChevy Chase!
ReplyDeleteFletch, amirite?
The "planted" actor is deceased. Some of these guesses are of people who still alive. My guess is..... I have no idea.
ReplyDeleteAlso a movie star who petered out to TV...
DeleteOnly one, and it's not still going on? Come on.
ReplyDeleteJames Coburn
ReplyDeleteLynsey de Paul
Our Man Flint
I had such a crush on James coburn as a small child..him and Terry Thomas!
DeleteThe guy is dead. He was a movie star BEFORE he was on tv. And he has to have been around at least in the late 80s or early 90s to have done straight to video which wasn't popular until that time.
ReplyDeletePlus he needs to have been popular and influential enough to mould public opinion, which was the whole point of the experiment.
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ReplyDeleteor The President's Analyst
ReplyDeleteHard Contract (1969)
ReplyDeleteJohn Cunningham (James Coburn), a remorseless contract assassin for the Central Intelligence Agency, is offered a high-ticket job by his superior, Ramsey (Burgess Meredith), one that will pay Cunningham enough to retire if he wishes
James Coburn
ReplyDeleteJames Coburn's rise to fame was not quick. He had been acting for years and years.
ReplyDeleteOmar Sharif became a movie star in Egypt, so he doesn't fit.
ReplyDeleteRock Hudson had a long and steady movie career, so he doesn't fit.
Kidding aside, Rock Hudson is the likely answer.
ReplyDeleteMarlon Brando?
ReplyDeleteRock Hudson had a pretty solid career on TV though. McMillan and Wife.
ReplyDeleteWarren Beatty kind of fits career wise.
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DeleteWarren Beatty is dead?
DeleteAlive with no television credits
DeleteCan't be Rock Hudson or very "back-in-the-day" as direct-to-video is a relatively new development in movie industry--the subject likely worked in the 90's or later...
ReplyDeleteWhere are you seeing the word "seconds" as a hint? Did he edit the blind?
ReplyDeleteTroy Donahue? He went to military academy for high school, and then to Columbia, and the CIA is known to recruit from Ivys.
ReplyDeleteHis career didnt last too terribly long, but he was the number one heartthrob of his day. His heyday mainly lasted from 59 to the mid 60s, after which he just did some tv and small roles.
He dated Joey Heatherton who was one ofthe top sex symbols of the 60s.
Cail -this idiot poster is referring to the move "Seconds" with Rock Hudson. The word "see" is supposed to be "seen".
ReplyDeleteIf true it screams Coburn -who played an Australian in the Great Escape and never seemed to look or sound like a guy from Nebraska.
ReplyDeleteA. Hes dead
ReplyDeleteB. He started out as U.S. military and changed his name and country of origin - so we think he is foreign.
C. he was a leading man in movies nearly immediately, all but disappeared from big films after five or six years
D. Then did occasional TV and straight to vid movies - so working until at least 1980s
E. had multiple "partners" - one of whom was an iconic female sex star
F. One of the roles he would be known for was a film where "identity" was important
G. Never revealed his real identity
So No to James Coburn, Vince Edwards, Rock Hudson, Warren Beautty, lee majors (not dead) - born in US
No to Omar Sharif - because he died in Egypt which indicates he was actually from there. Iconic roles not about identity - and worked pretty regularly....on a lot of middle eastern roles.
Probably joking about Dudley moore but no way he was in military and he had a pretty strong music thing going
Fletch...just no.
Fernando Lamas was married to Arlene Dahl who was considered a sex symbol back in the day. He also married Esther Williams. He achieved leading man status and then pretty much disappeared only to reappear on tv from time to time. Seems like I remember reading at one time that he had some kind of government affiliation.
ReplyDeleteLaurence Harvey
ReplyDeleteBio says born in Lithuania, grew up in South Africa, moved to England. Sufficiently muddled/non-western to cover up real story.
Lead with Sinatra in Manchurian Candidate.
Good friends with Liz Taylor.
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ReplyDeleteFernando Lamas
ReplyDelete5 minutes late on my guess
ReplyDeleteBenji
ReplyDeleteThis kind of fits:
ReplyDeleteJohn Gavin was a famous actor in the 1950s and Cultural Adviser to the Organization of American States (OAS) from 1961 to 1965, which was a govt org whose partial goal was to stop the spread of communism in Latin America during the Cold War.
He was born Juan Vincent Apablasa in Los Angeles (could have easily been Mexico, if they changed birthplace) . He went to stanford, started with a career in the military and turned suddenly to acting when a family friend offered him a contract at universal, and he started headlling almost immediately
He said: "I never did any acting in school, never had any curiosity about college plays,” he later said. "My entire thought moved in quite another direction.""
He landed leading roles very quickly, most notably, with Lana Turner, in the Imitation of Life.
This film is one of the most famous "identity" films, because it is about an african-american girl passing as white.
His film career lasted only about 6 years (also with large roles in Spartacus and Psycho), then he just did some tv.
He also became Ambassador to Mexico under Reagan.
How about Gary Lockwood? He had the classic leading man look and was headed to leading man status, then suddenly ended up doing TV and then fell off the face of the planet.
ReplyDeleteI'm amazed at the number of you who seem to have missed the part where it says this actor is dead. Lockwood is alive.
DeleteOops! Hamid forgot to switch back😂
DeleteHuh?
DeleteShouldn't you be raping kuffar children as per your paedophile prophet?
Also John Gavin dated Bond Girl, Luciana Paluzzi, for the sex symbol part.
ReplyDeleteI would've said Rock Hudson except for the straight-to-video angle.
ReplyDeleteThe fact they "proved their point" with whoever it is indicates this was a test run to show it could be done and is now done all the time. All. The. Time.
Checked Lockwood's wiki page, he's still alive so I guess that rules him out. But he was married to Stephanie Powers, so there's the sex symbol part.
ReplyDeleteGary Lockwood's not dead. And his career stalled after making "Model Shop," which was supposed to ignite him to superstar status after "2001."
ReplyDelete"Model Shop" was the first US film directed by French auteur Jacques Demy, coming off "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," and even weaves in narrative elements from that film. But instead of propelling him to leading man status, it was a catastrophic flop and he was soon relegated to TV show pilots and guest bits.
Tough break. "Model Shop" is actually a beautiful film. Recently screened in L.A. at one of the retro houses.
Tab Hunter, because he just died. IDK
ReplyDeleteJohn Gavin seems the best guess so far.
ReplyDeleteAlso has two IMDB credits under the name "john Gilmore"
very fuzzy background imo.
I'm sure not seeing much direct-to-video work in most of these careers. Why is everyone going back two decades before the VCR?
ReplyDeleteAlso, the CIA was created in 1947 and they probably didn't start out putting spies into Hollywood immediately...maybe some years later?
DeleteI like Laurence Harvey/ John Gavin...although Ephram Zimbalist & David Janssen came to mind..
ReplyDeleteJohn Gavin fits pretty well too.
ReplyDeleteThe long-term 'Mockingbird' infiltration of the media is blatantly obvious lately, so you know this actor thing was not a one-off project.
A juicier question is who are the current DS/CIA employees?
The basic premise of the CIA evolved during WWII (i.e. multilateral intelligence agencies acting behind the scenes in many diverse areas). Certainly Hollywood would have been one their FIRST areas to infiltrate.
ReplyDeleteThat Gavin looks TOO MUCH like a spook. Prolly the right and best guess but seems too obvious. Must be an agent right to star instead of MK-ultra monarch child shock trauma mind controlled, into a cult, then on to stardom, one of those 'by the books' operations to be an above board project. Cosby worked alongside Project Paperclip Nazi's at Bethesda in Maryland and went on to be one of the first African-American actors to play in a televised sitcom in I-Spy (that also had on the set CIA consultation).
ReplyDeleteI hope this one gets a reveal.
ReplyDeleteThe only name mentioned that both I know anything about, and seems to at least somewhat fit at first glance is Fernando Lamas.
Rock Hudson doesn't fit at all career wise, and Enty wouldn't be able to refrain from making a closeted reference, or that he died from AIDS.
Rock Hudson due to 'Seconds' but probably doesn't fit. Choice of the word 'partner' instead of lover/wife made me also assume it was him. I don't think his sexuality would have anything to do with choosing him.
ReplyDeleteNow he was a gorgeous man.
Delete@Armchair
ReplyDelete"Warren Beatty kind of fits career wise."
Born and raised in DC, too, but I think the BI would have mentioned a famous sister.
Highly doubt any of the gay actors would have been in the CIA at that time.
ReplyDelete@c dan
ReplyDelete"Certainly Hollywood would have been one their FIRST areas to infiltrate."
It's not infiltration so much as the CIA used a lot of the same writers as HWood to build scenarios. The early CIA was full of Yale deconstructionists as was Hollywood. The jobs overlapped .
It's silly not to think the CIA has had some influence on US culture. It's one of their mainstays of operations, and not just in the USA. It's pretty interesting to read about, their successes and their big assed failures.
I would have guessed Lee Majors and the romantic interest Farrah Fawcett Majors.
ReplyDeletebut that doesn't totally fit.
I'm going with Gauloise on this one and his choice of Troy Donahue.
@c dan run
ReplyDeleteBut did Lawrence do any TV? I don't recollect that.
I think we're also looking for someone without known siblings or parents. If he changed his name and country his parents and siblings wouldn't do the same, would they?
ReplyDeleteI like the Troy Donohue guess. I remember needing to ask my mother who he was the first time I saw Grease and Rizzo sang about him. My mom was like, “Yeah. What happened to him?”
ReplyDeleteDefinitely fell from the radar as quickly as he got there.
Didn't John Gavin pass away recently? That would kinda point to him being the ex-CIA actor unless it's a red herring.
ReplyDeleteBeliieve it. google Operation Mockingbird to see how the CIA controlls the media (old school fake news;):
ReplyDeleteWisner maintained the top secret “Propaganda Assets Inventory,” better known as “Wisner’s Wurlitzer”—a virtual rolodex of over 800 news and information entities prepared to play whatever tune Wisner chose. “The network included journalists, columnists, book publishers, editors, entire organizations such as Radio Free Europe, and stringers across multiple news organizations.” Pease, “The Media and the Assassination,” 300.
A few years after Wisner’s operation was up-and-running he “’owned’ respected members of the New York Times, Newsweek, CBS, and other communication vehicles, plus stringers, four to six hundred in all, according to a CIA analyst. Each one was a separate ‘operation,’” investigative journalist Deborah Davis notes, “requiring a code name, a field supervisor, and a field office, at an annual cost of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars—there has never been an accurate accounting.” Deborah Davis, Katharine the Great: Katharine Graham and the Washington Post, Second Edition, Bethesda MD: National Press Inc, 1987, 139.
Psychological operations in the form of journalism were perceived as necessary to influence and direct mass opinion, as well as elite perspectives. “[T]he President of the United States, the Secretary of State, Congressmen and even the Director of the CIA himself will read, believe, and be impressed by a report from Cy Sulzberger, Arnaud de Borchgrave, or Stewart Alsop when they don’t even bother to read a CIA report on the same subject,” noted CIA agent Miles Copeland. Cited in Pease, “The Media and the Assassination,” 301.
Terry Thomas?
ReplyDeleteLoved his character in Mad Mad World:
"In all my time in this wretched, godforsaken country, the one thing that has appalled me most of all is this preposterous preoccupation with bosoms. Don't you realize they have become the dominant theme in American culture: in literature, advertising and all fields of entertainment and everything. I'll wager you anything you like: if American women stopped wearing brassieres, your whole national economy would collapse overnight. "
And he was right!
"Highly doubt any of the gay actors would have been in the CIA at that time."
ReplyDeleteIt would disqualifying for a security clearance, and thus from being an operative of any kind.
Also Enty doesn't seem to miss an opportunity to use "This closeted A list actor..." if he knows/thinks that to be the case.
Also, thanks to ever threw out Gary Lockwood for a guess (not him - not dead). It led me to the most fascinating article and interview (together in one piece), not because he himself was particularly interesting, but because the interview displayed the highest level of narcissism that I think I have ever seen. "I fucked all the actresses, all the women loved me and all the men were either afraid of me or wanted to be me. I fucked the wives and the daughters, I beat up football players, truckers and other actors, every guy was afraid of me..." It was staggering how highly he thought of himself, even regaling how Steve Mcqueen was a pussy around him and scared of him
fun fact: miles copeland mentioned above was stuart copeland (the drummer for the Police) dad. And on that note, Woody Harrelson's dad was a CIA trained killer (see the weird interview with barbara walters on youtube). jim morrison's dad was navy intelligence... lots more i'm sure...
ReplyDeleteChuck Barris. It's obvious.
ReplyDeleteJohn Gavin was an intelligence officer in the Korean War.
ReplyDeletethe early roots of operation mockingbird, shifting focus on infiltrating the press...
ReplyDeleteI like the Fernando Lamas guess
ReplyDeleteIf the fellow was homosexual, the CIA would have seen that as a positive, since they could use it as blackmail if he ever challenged their control.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a has been that finally lost it and started telling stories. Some conspiracy theory moron hears it then throws in some two-bit rationalization to make it seem plausible and (Voila!) a conspiracy theory is born. Come on people!!
ReplyDeleteCail, that is exactly how the 'deep state' came to be. Rather than identifying a problem and eliminating it, they identified and controlled/owned the problem. Make the problem an asset. Play the long game. It's brilliant. This is how we are where we are now.
ReplyDeleteWarren Beatty grew up in Richmond, VA + he is alive
ReplyDeletehttps://hookedonhouses.net/2015/02/12/this-classic-foursquare-was-shirley-maclaine-warren-beattys-childhood-home-in-virginia/
I think it's John Gavin. He looks like a CIA operative on his IMDB page.
ReplyDeleteYes, after spending some time digging into John Gavin, I'm 100% sure it is him. He ticks all the boxes.
ReplyDeletePart of the problem I had was thinking John Gavin was John Saxon, which threw me off.
Kris Kristopherson is another one, it's a poorly kept secret that he and his whole family worked with the CIA.
ReplyDeleteYeah, definitely John Gavin. He does have the look, and married Constance Towers. My only question would be: when did straight to video movies start? Early 80's would be my guess which would eliminate him.
ReplyDeleteRe: Kris Kristopherson - fascinating guy, but I think he was primarily a sing/songwriter/musician and Enty would have mentioned that.
ReplyDeleteI don't know of any Coburn straight to video films. He was making movies almost to the end of his life (he looked very frail in Maverick) loved him as Flint and Feldwebel Steiner.
ReplyDeleteJohn Gavin seems the best bet.
I think it's John Gavin too but if the CIA's intention was to make a big "star" then they failed miserably.
ReplyDeleteI'm in my mid sixties and when I read the name posted on this thread I couldn't recall ever seeing it before. I did an image search looked at his movies on IMDB...HE WAS IN PSYCHO?
I'm sure ladies find him attractive and all but what a nebbish. He's bland as hell, like Bruce Boxlightner or Keir Dulleah. Good looking clean cut bland emotionless guys that never had a screen presence. The only guy that bland that made it was Kevin Costner.
But wait...had a movie career, then a TV career...died...RONALD REAGAN... haha no.
Steven Seagal- Kelly LeBrock, the woman in red
ReplyDeleteI can't believe this! This is a total lie! Celebrities just happen naturally! Just look at Lu'peeta O'bongo, Davidoyelowo'mdoomba and Azealia Ooga'Booga and tell me they don't!
ReplyDeleteJust kidding. The deep state totally does this shit. Well, now you know why "John Gavin" (Juan Gavanzuela) was made Ambassador to Mexico. ¡Que lástima!
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ReplyDeleteJohn Gavin fits. He had a military background before he became an actor. He never wanted to be an actor and then suddenly he was one. He had the background and the movie star good looks.
ReplyDeleteLook at the amateurs posting. You do not get to portray a CIA agent without approval, Coburn got the full signoff and he has plenty of straight-to-video movies. Many voice overs. Son of CIA agent Bill Hicks got started in a CIA sponsored TV pilot. Now he portrays Alex Jones.
ReplyDelete@plot @armchair
ReplyDeleteAnd Warren Beatty is still living
Meh, if the CIA scrubbed his birth history, they most likely scrubbed his military role. I don't know why but I'm getting a Ricardo Montalban vibe, or someone like him. That's if any of this is true, hahah.
ReplyDeleteSeagal if he was dead. Big star, then straight to video. Kelly LeBrock the old sex symbol. Looks kind of Russian, buddies with Putin.
ReplyDeleteTalk about a forgettable actor in a memorable movie.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/5KoxuK3ai8U
I'm impressed with Gauloise's knowledge particularly the OAS detail.
Creating a cinema star like this is sort of interesting but the really sinister thing is that the CIA is rumored to use Hollywood to push other agendas by pushing scripts to studios for propaganda or even deeper more subliminal influences upon the public.
My first guess was Desi Arnaz! The Cuba connection to CIA.
ReplyDeleteBut I like the Ronald Reagan guess even better.
Because Ronald Reagan spent his final years doing straight to video movies,right?
DeleteProbably Gavin, but I want it to be Chuck Norris.
ReplyDeleteBecause Chuck Norris is dead, right?
DeleteKriss Kristoferfuck would be perfect but that leather face palooka is still with us.
ReplyDeleteOh for the love of Jesus, why can't you assholes keep the same screen name
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely John Gavin. Take a look at his wiki page.
ReplyDeleteI was reading some articles, long ago, where the CIA/OSS would recruit actors (and in this case, an agent juxtaposed). I believe it wholeheartedly.
Very interesting. Gavin was a very handsome man. He would've gone farther as a leading man, if he'd wanted to or had been able to.
James Garner?
ReplyDeleteJohn Gavin seems most likely. He just died recently. What a gorgeous man. Makes me hope it was him. He served his country a lot - maybe even more than we knew!
ReplyDeleteSecond that, Lee Majors for sure. Great guess.
ReplyDeleteLee is still alive
DeleteCary Grant
ReplyDeleteJames Gregory from the original Manchurian Candidate in 1962.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gregory_(actor)
Was in the military, the premise of the movie is essentially hypnosis and mind control.
"My first guess was Desi Arnaz! The Cuba connection to CIA."
ReplyDeleteDesi's family left Cuba under the threat of Batista, not Castro. Wrong political persuasion for the 1950s CIA.
Not Troy Donahue. He "disappeared" because he was a drunk, a substance abuser, and a woman beater.
ReplyDeleteHe went through three wives in less than 10 years (one of them was the beautiful Suzanne Pleshette) and ended up homeless, living in Central Park.
I don't think he's our super-spy.
Homeless is one of the best covers.
DeleteAsk DB et al.
Gavin is an interesting candidate, but he has no straight-to-video movies from what I can see on his IMDB. His career ended with a Fantasy Island episode in 1981, where straight-to-video was more a mid-to-late-80s thing.
ReplyDeleteGavin was Mexican-American and spoke Spanish well enough to star in Spanish-language movies. Being fully bilingual is a hard identity to take on as an adult, as the subject in this blind supposedly did. Any native speaker would probably be able to pick up the difference.
@Nutty The blind only says the birth place was changed, not that he moved internationally as an adult. He could have moved to USA as a child, when it is possible to be fully bilingual. He did his high school at a military school in the USA. I knew some people who moved to the US in high school, and they picked up the accent and became bl-lingual.
ReplyDeleteHe also did some low budget movies in the late 70s that barely had a release, and then went to video later. Since it is a reader blind, also maybe they don't realize the dates when videos became a thing.
Robert Stack
ReplyDeletePeter Sellers or David Niven for randoms
ReplyDelete"the long term plan was to sue this person to mould public opinion the way that that the intelligence agencies wish"
ReplyDeleteSuing your own agent/actor to achieve some effect on public opinion? Isn't this #metoo in a nutshell?
Pretty sure Enty meant "use" and not "sue". I had to read the blind a couple of times to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteForget this. Present day they are using spooks as disinformation shills and gatekeepers on all sides. They fake deaths and have people reappear. Alex Jones is the formerly named Bill Hicks whose handler was Frank Gannon. This is 100% true. There are others.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't this person likely be famous in the 80s? I didnt think "straight to video" was a thing until the 80s
ReplyDeleteAlex Jones only vaguely resembles Bill Hicks Alf-san. Sometimes people just look alike. They may have similar ethnic origins that lend to some features being common between them. With billions of people in the world you are going to get some lookalikes. And sometimes those lookalikes will exist in the same country and in the same lifetime. That doesn't mean that they are the same person because one of them died years ago and now the lookalike is famous. I hope you are trolling. If not, /x/ is that way. You missed a turn on the freeway.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I usually scroll past reader blinds because they are mostly trash. But I saw "CIA" and thought it would be good for a laugh. These days you don't even need the CIA for this. You could probably do this on Youtube if you had some money for promotion. after that Patreon should take care of the rest.
Not based on anything other than a spidey sense: Steven Seagal
ReplyDeleteAlex Jones does not look like Bill Hicks at all in most photos.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe no one has settled on an answer to this actor though. I can't think of anyone who fits everything.
3,2,1.....the shills arrive to try and shut down the Jones/Hicks TRUTH BOMB. IT IS A FACT. Want to know another faked death? The wife of ted Olsen. She allegedly died in a plane crash when there was no real airplane. Ted Olsen later remarried her new identity, but like Hicks/Jones the plastic surgery was not enough to show they are the same person. So F off you shills.
ReplyDelete@Adrastia - Bill Hicks and Alex Jones have the same guy as a best friend, what are the odds? - did the guy miss Hicks so much that he went looking for someone who looked exactly the same to replace him with? Hicks was also working on a Rush Limbaugh character before he "died".
ReplyDelete@Hamid - Chuck Norris doesn't die he just regenerates.Seeds spawn from his beard.
ReplyDelete+1,000
Delete@Alf
ReplyDelete" the Jones/Hicks TRUTH BOMB. IT IS A FACT."
If it was FACT you would have not trouble proving it, beyond a couple of questionable photos. Humor me. What are your TRUTHS? Make them solid not photos, show me where HIcks and Jones have the same childhood, the same siblings, that their histories completely parallel before Hicks' death. Watch it. Anything squishy will be called out.
As for Barbara Olson, if she were alive she would be 65+. No 65 year old looks like Ted Olson's new wife.
ReplyDeleteCary Grant.
ReplyDeleteNorth by Northwest
Bob Hope. He also had connections to Nixon, Bush, Reagan. Had quite a few movies to videos in 1980s. Affair with Doris Day & a lot of B rated starlets. Bio says born in England. Has to at least be part of Mockingbird, IMO.
ReplyDeleteI finally got it with the help of this film about Lookout Mountain propaganda studios. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=289QhrU9Xow
ReplyDeleteIt's Glenn Ford.