10 Real-Life Spies More Badass Than James Bond

5. Tony Mendez Smuggled Hostages Out Of Iran

Wikimedia Commons, CIA

Mendez is now retired from his long-time position as a CIA technical operations officer, but during his tenure at the premier American intelligence agency, he was known as the master of disguise. For the most part, Tony Mendez wasn't a field agent himself, instead crafting all the documents, disguises, and fully-fledged personas that his fellow spies would need to travel under enemy lines undetected. He's more like the real-life badass Q to all these real-life badass Bonds.

His skills were such that he managed to get an Asian man and a black CIA agent to look like two plain white businessmen in order to avoid the attention of Laos counter-intelligence. His most successful mission, however, is one you might recognise, because it's the story told in Ben Affleck's Oscar-winning historical drama Argo.

Yep, it's that Tony Mendez, the one who cooked up the €œfake movie production€ plot to help get a bunch of American and Canadian ambassadorial hostages out of Iran in the seventies. That involved a lot of fake documentation, disguises for him and his fellow agents, and resulted in Mendez successfully overseeing the safe flight out of the country by all the hostages. No casualties, a lot of make up, and an Academy Award.

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Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/