10 Real-Life Spies More Badass Than James Bond
10. Sidney Reilly Tried To Kill Lenin
Ian Fleming's original character was sort of a mish-mash of various different real-life spies he knew either by reputation or personally, taking elements of their service career and personality in creating James Bond. The name, meanwhile, came from the author of a book about birds of Jamaica that Fleming had bought when he moved to the country in his retirement with the intention of writing full-time.
One of the major inspirations for 007 was Sidney Reilly, dubbed the Ace Of Spies by his peers at the time, with his exploits reaching a wider audience thanks to the writings of his pal Robert Bruce Lockhart. Mind you, Reilly was kind of a master of deception and lies - it was his job, after all - so nobody's ever quite pinned down how many of his adventures were actually true.
Supposedly he worked for a variety of international intelligence agencies during the early twentieth century, led an attempt to overthrow the Bolshevik government in Russia in 1917, masterminded an assassination attempt of Lenin soon after, and travelled the world thanks to his unparalleled ability to create false identities good enough to allow him to cross borders without incident.