10 Real-Life Spies More Badass Than James Bond

4. William Stephenson Was Basically IRL Bond

Wikimedia Commons, Intrepid Society

Apparently there was no end to the true stories Ian Fleming cribbed for his creation, but there's one he explicitly fessed up to. €œJames Bond is a highly romanticized version of a true spy,€ he admitted: William Stephenson€.

A Canadian soldier, airman, businessman, inventor, boxing champion, and the head of British intelligence for the entire western hemisphere throughout World War II, Stephenson is best known by his wartime intelligence codename Intrepid, and it's true that he's as close as we've got a real 007.

Stephenson's biggest work was founding and running the spy training facility Camp X, referred to as the Ottawa School Of Murder And Mayhem by its students. It was there that he taught a bunch of future spooks all the skills they needed to spy on America, mostly by befriending important and influential people and figuring out where they stood on the politics of the time. During this time, Stephenson got so close to President Roosevelt he was made a special advisor, and helped set up what would later become the CIA.

He did a lot during his career as a spy, but the main success of Stephenson's time in espionage was shunting the public opinion in America to the point that they finally stopped lollygagging and joined the Allied side in the war, helping to end the darn thing once and for all.

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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/