George Smiley
Encyclopedia
George Smiley is a fictional character
created by John le Carré
. Smiley is an intelligence officer
working for MI6 (often referred to as "the Circus" in the novels and films), the British overseas intelligence agency
. He is a central character in the novel
s Call for the Dead
; A Murder of Quality
; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
; The Honourable Schoolboy
; and Smiley's People
, and a minor character in a number of others, including le Carré's breakthrough novel The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
, The Looking Glass War and The Secret Pilgrim
.
Smiley was probably born around 1906 (or 1915 on the revised chronology) to middle class parents in the South of England, and attended a minor public school and an antiquated Oxford
college of no real distinction (in the adaptation of Smiley's People, he refers to himself as a fellow of Lincoln College
), studying modern languages with a particular focus on Baroque German literature. In July 1928, while considering post-graduate study in that field, he was recruited into the Secret Intelligence Service
by his tutor Jebedee.
He underwent training and probation in Central Europe and South America
, and spent the period from 1935 until approximately 1938 in Germany
recruiting networks under cover as a lecturer
. In 1939, with the commencement of World War II
, he saw service not only in Germany, but also in Switzerland
and Sweden
. Smiley's wartime superiors described him as having 'the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin.'
In 1943, he was recalled to England to work at MI6 headquarters, and in 1945 successfully proposed marriage to Lady Ann Sercombe, a beautiful, aristocratic, and libidinous young lady working as a secretary there. Ann would prove a most unfaithful and rather condescending wife. In the same year, Smiley left the Service and returned to Oxford. However, in 1947, with the onset of the Cold War
, Smiley was asked to return to the Service, and in early 1951 moved into counter-intelligence work, where he would remain for the next decade. During that period, Smiley first met his Soviet
nemesis, Karla
, in a Delhi
prison. Karla proved impossible to crack and managed to steal Smiley's lighter, a gift from his wife.
, le Carré's debut novel. At the start of the novel, set around 1960, Smiley has fallen from grace and is working in a relatively menial intelligence job, including security-clearing civil servants. He spends much of the story bemoaning the loss of the talented agents who were his mentors and their replacement by talentless civil-service bureaucrats, such as the current head of service, Maston, who refers to himself as the "Minister's Advisor for Intelligence" and is widely, if secretly, mocked. During this book, Smiley is forced to resign from the Circus to unravel an East German spy ring, in so doing clearing his own name and restoring his reputation, but remains retired, despite Maston's pleadings, at the end. He was pursuing a sedate life of scholastic research in German literature at a university in the West Country (probably Exeter
) when he investigated a murder at a fictional public school
in le Carré's next novel, A Murder of Quality
.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
, his third novel, propelled le Carré to international renown. Smiley, who is a minor but pivotal character in the story, is supposedly still retired but is revealed during the story to be back in the Circus as one of the top aides to "Control", Maston's mysterious successor as the Circus' chief. Smiley and his assistant Peter Guillam
have actually turned the brutal head of East German intelligence into a British double agent. The events in this book take place around 1962, after the construction of the Berlin Wall
.
Smiley appeared again in The Looking Glass War, le Carre's fourth novel, but only in a peripheral role, supposedly occupying the "North European desk" at the Circus. His intervention drives the final twist in the plot, when he has enough authority to force a competing British intelligence agency to abandon a mission and the agent conducting it.
Smiley does not appear in either of le Carre's next two works, only one of which dealt with espionage.
, who later played a pivotal role in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
, was captured in Czechoslovakia
. Smiley himself was then dismissed. The Circus was taken over by Percy Alleline
with Bill Haydon
running 'London Station'.
When Le Carré wrote Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
, he drastically revised the timeline of Smiley's early life. According to this new account, Smiley was recruited into MI6 in 1937, not 1928. This was probably done so that Smiley's advancing age would not become an issue in the subsequent novels Le Carré was planning for his protagonist. His colleague Peter Guillam
also had his personal history revised, from being a near-contemporary of Smiley's who had trained with the Circus during World War II in the early novels to being his younger protégé and trusted deputy. (In the television adaptations of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Guillam, played by Michael Jayston
, is portrayed as a relatively young character, albeit in a senior position in the "Circus".)
take place, with Smiley successfully managing to expose the long-term Soviet agent, or "mole", codenamed "Gerald". The investigation revealed that Gerald, who was actually a senior member of the anti-Control faction that had taken over the Service the previous year, had passed an enormous quantity of high-grade intelligence to the USSR. The mole is found to be Smiley's colleague Bill Haydon
, who was also at one time his wife's lover. At the end of this case Smiley became interim Chief of the Service in late November 1974 to clean up the resultant mess, rebuilding the organisation's headquarters staff by use of trusted old-timers like Guillam
, Doc di Salis, and Connie Sachs
.
In 1975 or 1976, after the conclusion of "Operation Dolphin", which was described at length in The Honourable Schoolboy
, Smiley retired again from the Service. In Smiley's People
he was brought back in late 1977 to investigate the death of an elderly Estonian
general, nationalist activist, and erstwhile MI6 agent. A convoluted trail led Smiley to discover a human weakness in his nemesis Karla, whom he persuaded to defect to the West in Berlin
in December 1977. This triumph is the highlight of his career.
chairing the "Fishing Rights Committee," a body set up to explore possible areas of cooperation between British and Russian intelligence services. Despite not actually appearing in 1989's The Russia House
, that novel is connected to certain aspects of Smiley's timeline via Ned, who is also a major player in The Secret Pilgrim.
's unnamed anti-hero (Harry Palmer
in the movie versions). This was a time when the critics and the public were welcoming more realistic versions of espionage
fiction, in contrast to the glamorous world of Ian Fleming
's James Bond
.
Smiley is sometimes considered the anti-Bond in the sense that Bond is an unrealistic figure and is more a portrayal of a male fantasy than a realistic government agent. George Smiley, on the other hand, is quiet, mild-mannered and middle-aged. He lives by his wits and, unlike Bond, is a master of bureaucratic manoeuvring rather than gunplay. Also unlike Bond he is not a bed-hopper; in fact it is Smiley's wife Ann who is notorious for her affairs.
When Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was published, the reviewer of the Spectator
described Smiley as a "brilliant spy and totally inadequate man".
Smiley is depicted as an exceptionally skilled spymaster, gifted with a prodigious memory. A student of espionage with a profound insight into the weaknesses and fallibilities of humans, highly sagacious and incredibly perceptive, he is very conscious of the immoral, grisly and unethical aspects of his profession.
Despite his series of retirements, Smiley maintains an extensive range of aides and support-staff, both inside and outside the Service, extending even to "retired" police officers and former Service members. His fidelity to them and his strong character appears to promote genuine respect and loyalty to him.
Le Carré describes him as a somewhat short and fat man, who always wears expensive but badly fitting clothes (he "dressed like a bookie"). He has a habit of cleaning his glasses on the "fat end" of his necktie.
In March 2010, while giving a talk on his life and works at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, Le Carré responded to a question concerning what became of Smiley by telling the audience that although he would like to think of Smiley as a Sherlock Holmesian figure, never having really retired, he acknowledged that to his mind, the character would now be "very old and getting past - certainly in his nineties". This accords with the later chronology. Le Carré envisaged Smiley now to be "keeping bees somewhere", still alive but very much retired.
tutor, the former Rev. Vivian Green — a renowned historian and author with an encyclopaedic knowledge. However, other than the thick spectacles and Green's habit of disappearing into a crowd, there were too many dissimilarities between the loquacious Green and the reticent Smiley to make this a clear match, and so other sources for Smiley continued to be named. It has been suggested that le Carré subconsciously took the name of his hero from special forces and intelligence officer Colonel David de Crespigny Smiley
. More commonly, it was rumoured that le Carré modelled the character on Sir Maurice Oldfield
, a former head of British Intelligence, who physically resembled Smiley. Le Carré denied the rumours, citing the fact that Oldfield and he were not contemporaries, although he and Alec Guinness
lunched with Oldfield when Guinness was researching the role of Smiley, and several of Oldfield's mannerisms of dress and behaviour were adopted by the actor for his performance.
Oldfield himself believed that, although Green probably inspired le Carré, the character of Smiley was primarily based on John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris
, who had been le Carré's boss when he originally joined MI5, prior to his career in MI6. In 1999, le Carré confirmed that Bingham was also an inspiration for Smiley, and in 2000 went further, writing in an introduction to a reissue of one of Bingham's novels that "He had been one of two men who had gone into the making of George Smiley. Nobody who knew John and the work he was doing could have missed the description of Smiley in my first novel".
A character resembling Bingham does appear in a number of le Carré's works, most notably as Jack Brotherhood in A Perfect Spy
.
, of Maigret
fame, played Smiley as a minor although important character in the film version of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
, made in 1965, and which starred Richard Burton
.
James Mason
played Smiley in all but name in The Deadly Affair
, a film version of Call for the Dead
, made in 1966 and directed by Sidney Lumet
. The character was renamed Charles Dobbs.
Gary Oldman
plays Smiley in a film adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
, which premièred at the 2011 Venice Film Festival . The film is set in 1973.
, made in 1979, and Smiley's People
, made in 1982. For cost reasons (much of the story was set in Indochina against the background of wars there) the BBC did not film The Honourable Schoolboy
, the middle novel of the Quest for Karla
trilogy — even the Far East
ern parts of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy were relocated to Portugal for the television adaptation.
Denholm Elliott
took the part in a 1991 version of A Murder of Quality
.
(1978) and A Murder of Quality
(1981).
Peter Vaughan
was Smiley in a radio version of The Honourable Schoolboy
(1983).
Bernard Hepton
, who played the part of Toby Esterhase
in the BBC television series, played Smiley in the BBC Radio series of both Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
(1988) and Smiley's People
(1990), with Charles Kay
taking the part of Esterhase.
A series of radio plays based on the novels featuring George Smiley, played by Simon Russell Beale
, commenced on 23 May 2009 on BBC Radio 4
with Call for the Dead.
, Smiley is mentioned as having tutored a character in interrogation.
Smiley appears as Harry Lime's assistant in Alan Moore
's graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
.
, Ronnie Barker
played Smiley along the lines of Alec Guinness' portrayal in a sketch called Tinker Tailor Smiley Doyle. This was a joint send-up of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Professionals
TV show, with Ronnie Corbett
playing a bungling version of Martin Shaw
's Doyle. Barker's Smiley provides the brains to the brawn of Corbett's Doyle and actually comes out the better. He is shown as something of an obsessive tea drinker. The sketch guest-starred Nicholas Smith from Are You Being Served?
. The name of Smiley's enemy Karla can be seen on a secretary's computer screen.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
created by John le Carré
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
. Smiley is an intelligence officer
Intelligence officer
An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile and/or analyze information which is of use to that organization...
working for MI6 (often referred to as "the Circus" in the novels and films), the British overseas intelligence agency
Intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...
. He is a central character in the novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s Call for the Dead
Call for the Dead
Call for the Dead is John le Carré's first novel, published in 1961. It introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain...
; A Murder of Quality
A Murder of Quality
A Murder of Quality is the second novel by John le Carré. It follows George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in his only book set outside the espionage community.-Plot summary:...
; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
; The Honourable Schoolboy
The Honourable Schoolboy
The Honourable Schoolboy is a spy novel by John le Carré. George Smiley tries to reconstruct an intelligence service and to run a successful offensive espionage operation to save the service from falling to the "war hawks" in government...
; and Smiley's People
Smiley's People
Smiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy...
, and a minor character in a number of others, including le Carré's breakthrough novel The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold , by John le Carré, is a British Cold War spy novel that became famous for its portrayal of Western espionage methods as being morally inconsistent with Western democracy and values. The novel received critical acclaim at the time of its publication and became an...
, The Looking Glass War and The Secret Pilgrim
The Secret Pilgrim
The Secret Pilgrim is a 1990 novel, set within the frame narrative of a series of lectures by John le Carré's George Smiley, famous only within the 'Circus'. The memoirs, narrated by Ned, a former pupil of Smiley's, are, except for the last, triggered by tangential Smiley comments in lectures given...
.
Early life
Although Smiley has no concrete biography beyond that offered briefly at the beginning of Call for the Dead, le Carré does leave clues in his novels.Smiley was probably born around 1906 (or 1915 on the revised chronology) to middle class parents in the South of England, and attended a minor public school and an antiquated Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
college of no real distinction (in the adaptation of Smiley's People, he refers to himself as a fellow of Lincoln College
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...
), studying modern languages with a particular focus on Baroque German literature. In July 1928, while considering post-graduate study in that field, he was recruited into the Secret Intelligence Service
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
by his tutor Jebedee.
He underwent training and probation in Central Europe and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, and spent the period from 1935 until approximately 1938 in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
recruiting networks under cover as a lecturer
Lecturer
Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...
. In 1939, with the commencement of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he saw service not only in Germany, but also in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Smiley's wartime superiors described him as having 'the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin.'
In 1943, he was recalled to England to work at MI6 headquarters, and in 1945 successfully proposed marriage to Lady Ann Sercombe, a beautiful, aristocratic, and libidinous young lady working as a secretary there. Ann would prove a most unfaithful and rather condescending wife. In the same year, Smiley left the Service and returned to Oxford. However, in 1947, with the onset of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, Smiley was asked to return to the Service, and in early 1951 moved into counter-intelligence work, where he would remain for the next decade. During that period, Smiley first met his Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
nemesis, Karla
Karla (fictional character)
Karla is a fictional character in several novels by John le Carré. A Soviet Intelligence officer, he most often appears as a distant antagonist of George Smiley...
, in a Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
prison. Karla proved impossible to crack and managed to steal Smiley's lighter, a gift from his wife.
The early novels
Smiley first appeared in Call for the DeadCall for the Dead
Call for the Dead is John le Carré's first novel, published in 1961. It introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain...
, le Carré's debut novel. At the start of the novel, set around 1960, Smiley has fallen from grace and is working in a relatively menial intelligence job, including security-clearing civil servants. He spends much of the story bemoaning the loss of the talented agents who were his mentors and their replacement by talentless civil-service bureaucrats, such as the current head of service, Maston, who refers to himself as the "Minister's Advisor for Intelligence" and is widely, if secretly, mocked. During this book, Smiley is forced to resign from the Circus to unravel an East German spy ring, in so doing clearing his own name and restoring his reputation, but remains retired, despite Maston's pleadings, at the end. He was pursuing a sedate life of scholastic research in German literature at a university in the West Country (probably Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
) when he investigated a murder at a fictional public school
Public School (UK)
A public school, in common British usage, is a school that is neither administered nor financed by the state or from taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of endowments, tuition fees and charitable contributions, usually existing as a non profit-making charitable trust...
in le Carré's next novel, A Murder of Quality
A Murder of Quality
A Murder of Quality is the second novel by John le Carré. It follows George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in his only book set outside the espionage community.-Plot summary:...
.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold , by John le Carré, is a British Cold War spy novel that became famous for its portrayal of Western espionage methods as being morally inconsistent with Western democracy and values. The novel received critical acclaim at the time of its publication and became an...
, his third novel, propelled le Carré to international renown. Smiley, who is a minor but pivotal character in the story, is supposedly still retired but is revealed during the story to be back in the Circus as one of the top aides to "Control", Maston's mysterious successor as the Circus' chief. Smiley and his assistant Peter Guillam
Peter Guillam
Peter Guillam is a fictional character in John le Carré's series of espionage novels. He first appears in Call for the Dead at which time he is working for the Ministry of Defence....
have actually turned the brutal head of East German intelligence into a British double agent. The events in this book take place around 1962, after the construction of the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
.
Smiley appeared again in The Looking Glass War, le Carre's fourth novel, but only in a peripheral role, supposedly occupying the "North European desk" at the Circus. His intervention drives the final twist in the plot, when he has enough authority to force a competing British intelligence agency to abandon a mission and the agent conducting it.
Smiley does not appear in either of le Carre's next two works, only one of which dealt with espionage.
Events prior to the 'Karla Trilogy,' and Le Carré's revision of Smiley's history
He subsequently rose up the ranks of MI6 in the late 1960s and early 1970s until he was the right-hand man of "Control". However, Control was eased out of the Circus in November or December 1972, after secret agent Jim PrideauxJim Prideaux
Jim Prideaux is a fictional Intelligence officer in the novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré. Although his character and actions are central to the plot, they are mostly revealed in sequences of dialogue and flashbacks, or are indirectly referred to.-Character and Career:Jim Prideaux...
, who later played a pivotal role in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
, was captured in Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. Smiley himself was then dismissed. The Circus was taken over by Percy Alleline
Percy Alleline
Sir Percy Alleline is a fictional character in British novelist John le Carré's work. He is the Chief of the "Circus", Le Carré's fictionalised version of MI6/SIS, in the novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy....
with Bill Haydon
Bill Haydon
Bill Haydon is a fictional character created by John le Carré, and is a major figure in le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.-Biography:...
running 'London Station'.
When Le Carré wrote Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
, he drastically revised the timeline of Smiley's early life. According to this new account, Smiley was recruited into MI6 in 1937, not 1928. This was probably done so that Smiley's advancing age would not become an issue in the subsequent novels Le Carré was planning for his protagonist. His colleague Peter Guillam
Peter Guillam
Peter Guillam is a fictional character in John le Carré's series of espionage novels. He first appears in Call for the Dead at which time he is working for the Ministry of Defence....
also had his personal history revised, from being a near-contemporary of Smiley's who had trained with the Circus during World War II in the early novels to being his younger protégé and trusted deputy. (In the television adaptations of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
Guillam, played by Michael Jayston
Michael Jayston
Michael Jayston is a Nottingham-born English actor.- Early life :He attended the Becket Grammar School in West Bridgford, then worked briefly as a trainee accountant at the offices of the National Coal Board before obtaining a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to train as an...
, is portrayed as a relatively young character, albeit in a senior position in the "Circus".)
The Karla trilogy
In September or October 1973, the events of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, SpyTinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
take place, with Smiley successfully managing to expose the long-term Soviet agent, or "mole", codenamed "Gerald". The investigation revealed that Gerald, who was actually a senior member of the anti-Control faction that had taken over the Service the previous year, had passed an enormous quantity of high-grade intelligence to the USSR. The mole is found to be Smiley's colleague Bill Haydon
Bill Haydon
Bill Haydon is a fictional character created by John le Carré, and is a major figure in le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.-Biography:...
, who was also at one time his wife's lover. At the end of this case Smiley became interim Chief of the Service in late November 1974 to clean up the resultant mess, rebuilding the organisation's headquarters staff by use of trusted old-timers like Guillam
Peter Guillam
Peter Guillam is a fictional character in John le Carré's series of espionage novels. He first appears in Call for the Dead at which time he is working for the Ministry of Defence....
, Doc di Salis, and Connie Sachs
Connie Sachs
Connie Sachs is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Sachs plays a key supporting role in le Carré's Karla Trilogy of spy novels including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and Smiley's People....
.
In 1975 or 1976, after the conclusion of "Operation Dolphin", which was described at length in The Honourable Schoolboy
The Honourable Schoolboy
The Honourable Schoolboy is a spy novel by John le Carré. George Smiley tries to reconstruct an intelligence service and to run a successful offensive espionage operation to save the service from falling to the "war hawks" in government...
, Smiley retired again from the Service. In Smiley's People
Smiley's People
Smiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy...
he was brought back in late 1977 to investigate the death of an elderly Estonian
Estonians
Estonians are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns and inhabiting, primarily, the country of Estonia. They speak a Finnic language known as Estonian...
general, nationalist activist, and erstwhile MI6 agent. A convoluted trail led Smiley to discover a human weakness in his nemesis Karla, whom he persuaded to defect to the West in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in December 1977. This triumph is the highlight of his career.
Smiley in retirement
Smiley was absent in the three Le Carré novels of the 1980s. He re-surfaced for a final time in 1990 when he appeared in The Secret PilgrimThe Secret Pilgrim
The Secret Pilgrim is a 1990 novel, set within the frame narrative of a series of lectures by John le Carré's George Smiley, famous only within the 'Circus'. The memoirs, narrated by Ned, a former pupil of Smiley's, are, except for the last, triggered by tangential Smiley comments in lectures given...
chairing the "Fishing Rights Committee," a body set up to explore possible areas of cooperation between British and Russian intelligence services. Despite not actually appearing in 1989's The Russia House
The Russia House
The Russia House is a novel by John le Carré published in 1989. The title refers to the nickname given to the portion of the British Secret Intelligence Service that was devoted to spying on the Soviet Union. A film based on the novel was released in 1990, starring Sean Connery and Michelle...
, that novel is connected to certain aspects of Smiley's timeline via Ned, who is also a major player in The Secret Pilgrim.
Analysis
Le Carré introduced Smiley at about the same time as Len DeightonLen Deighton
Leonard Cyril Deighton is a British military historian, cookery writer, and novelist. He is perhaps most famous for his spy novel The IPCRESS File, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine....
's unnamed anti-hero (Harry Palmer
Harry Palmer
Harry Palmer is the name of the protagonist of a number of films based on the main character from the spy novels written by Len Deighton. Michael Caine played Harry Palmer in the films based on three of the first four of the published novels featuring this character, and also later in two films not...
in the movie versions). This was a time when the critics and the public were welcoming more realistic versions of espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
fiction, in contrast to the glamorous world of Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
's James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
.
Smiley is sometimes considered the anti-Bond in the sense that Bond is an unrealistic figure and is more a portrayal of a male fantasy than a realistic government agent. George Smiley, on the other hand, is quiet, mild-mannered and middle-aged. He lives by his wits and, unlike Bond, is a master of bureaucratic manoeuvring rather than gunplay. Also unlike Bond he is not a bed-hopper; in fact it is Smiley's wife Ann who is notorious for her affairs.
When Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was published, the reviewer of the Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
described Smiley as a "brilliant spy and totally inadequate man".
Smiley is depicted as an exceptionally skilled spymaster, gifted with a prodigious memory. A student of espionage with a profound insight into the weaknesses and fallibilities of humans, highly sagacious and incredibly perceptive, he is very conscious of the immoral, grisly and unethical aspects of his profession.
Despite his series of retirements, Smiley maintains an extensive range of aides and support-staff, both inside and outside the Service, extending even to "retired" police officers and former Service members. His fidelity to them and his strong character appears to promote genuine respect and loyalty to him.
Le Carré describes him as a somewhat short and fat man, who always wears expensive but badly fitting clothes (he "dressed like a bookie"). He has a habit of cleaning his glasses on the "fat end" of his necktie.
In March 2010, while giving a talk on his life and works at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, Le Carré responded to a question concerning what became of Smiley by telling the audience that although he would like to think of Smiley as a Sherlock Holmesian figure, never having really retired, he acknowledged that to his mind, the character would now be "very old and getting past - certainly in his nineties". This accords with the later chronology. Le Carré envisaged Smiley now to be "keeping bees somewhere", still alive but very much retired.
Models
In 1995, le Carré said that the character of George Smiley was inspired by his one-time Lincoln College, OxfordLincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...
tutor, the former Rev. Vivian Green — a renowned historian and author with an encyclopaedic knowledge. However, other than the thick spectacles and Green's habit of disappearing into a crowd, there were too many dissimilarities between the loquacious Green and the reticent Smiley to make this a clear match, and so other sources for Smiley continued to be named. It has been suggested that le Carré subconsciously took the name of his hero from special forces and intelligence officer Colonel David de Crespigny Smiley
David Smiley
Colonel David de Crespigny Smiley, LVO, OBE, MC & Bar was a British special forces and intelligence officer. He fought in the Second World War in Palestine, Iraq, Persia, Syria, Western Desert and with Special Operations Executive in Albania and Thailand.- Background :Smiley was the 4th and...
. More commonly, it was rumoured that le Carré modelled the character on Sir Maurice Oldfield
Maurice Oldfield
Sir Maurice Oldfield GCMG, CBE , was a British intelligence officer and espionage administrator.-Early life:...
, a former head of British Intelligence, who physically resembled Smiley. Le Carré denied the rumours, citing the fact that Oldfield and he were not contemporaries, although he and Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
lunched with Oldfield when Guinness was researching the role of Smiley, and several of Oldfield's mannerisms of dress and behaviour were adopted by the actor for his performance.
Oldfield himself believed that, although Green probably inspired le Carré, the character of Smiley was primarily based on John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris
John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris
John Michael Ward Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris was an English novelist who published 17 thrillers, detective novels and spy novels...
, who had been le Carré's boss when he originally joined MI5, prior to his career in MI6. In 1999, le Carré confirmed that Bingham was also an inspiration for Smiley, and in 2000 went further, writing in an introduction to a reissue of one of Bingham's novels that "He had been one of two men who had gone into the making of George Smiley. Nobody who knew John and the work he was doing could have missed the description of Smiley in my first novel".
A character resembling Bingham does appear in a number of le Carré's works, most notably as Jack Brotherhood in A Perfect Spy
A Perfect Spy
A Perfect Spy by John le Carré is a novel about the mental and moral dissolution of a secret agent.-Plot introduction:A Perfect Spy is the tale of Magnus Pym, a long-time spy for the United Kingdom. After attending his father's funeral, Pym mysteriously disappears...
.
Film
Rupert DaviesRupert Davies
Rupert Davies was a British actor. He remains best known for playing the title role in the BBC's 1960s television adaptation of Maigret, based on the Maigret novels written by Georges Simenon....
, of Maigret
Maigret
Jules Maigret, Maigret to most people, including his wife, is a fictional police detective, actually a commissaire or commissioner of the Paris "Brigade Criminelle" , created by writer Georges Simenon.Seventy-five novels and twenty-eight short stories about Maigret were published between 1931 and...
fame, played Smiley as a minor although important character in the film version of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (film)
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a 1965 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by John le Carré. It was adapted by Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper. The film stars Richard Burton as Alec Leamas, along with Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, Peter van Eyck, Sam Wanamaker, Rupert Davies and Cyril Cusack...
, made in 1965, and which starred Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
.
James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
played Smiley in all but name in The Deadly Affair
The Deadly Affair
The Deadly Affair is a 1966 British espionage–thriller film, based on John le Carré's first novel Call for the Dead. The film stars James Mason, Harry Andrews, Simone Signoret and Maximilian Schell and was directed by Sidney Lumet from a script by Paul Dehn. In it George Smiley, the central...
, a film version of Call for the Dead
Call for the Dead
Call for the Dead is John le Carré's first novel, published in 1961. It introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain...
, made in 1966 and directed by Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
. The character was renamed Charles Dobbs.
Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
plays Smiley in a film adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (film)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 English-language espionage film directed by Tomas Alfredson, from a screenplay written by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan based on the 1974 novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré...
, which premièred at the 2011 Venice Film Festival . The film is set in 1973.
Television
Smiley's most famous portrayal, however, must be that made by Sir Alec Guinness in two highly successful BBC TV series: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, SpyTinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
, made in 1979, and Smiley's People
Smiley's People
Smiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy...
, made in 1982. For cost reasons (much of the story was set in Indochina against the background of wars there) the BBC did not film The Honourable Schoolboy
The Honourable Schoolboy
The Honourable Schoolboy is a spy novel by John le Carré. George Smiley tries to reconstruct an intelligence service and to run a successful offensive espionage operation to save the service from falling to the "war hawks" in government...
, the middle novel of the Quest for Karla
The Quest for Karla
Smiley Versus Karla , by John le Carré, published in the US as The Quest for Karla, is an omnibus edition of three novels concerning George Smiley's fight against Karla, his counterpart in Moscow Centre . The "Karla Trilogy" includes:* Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - * The Honourable Schoolboy - *...
trilogy — even the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
ern parts of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy were relocated to Portugal for the television adaptation.
Denholm Elliott
Denholm Elliott
Denholm Mitchell Elliott, CBE was an English film, television and theatre actor with over 120 film and television credits...
took the part in a 1991 version of A Murder of Quality
A Murder of Quality
A Murder of Quality is the second novel by John le Carré. It follows George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in his only book set outside the espionage community.-Plot summary:...
.
Radio
George Cole played Smiley in BBC Radio versions of both Call for the DeadCall for the Dead
Call for the Dead is John le Carré's first novel, published in 1961. It introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain...
(1978) and A Murder of Quality
A Murder of Quality
A Murder of Quality is the second novel by John le Carré. It follows George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in his only book set outside the espionage community.-Plot summary:...
(1981).
Peter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan is an English character actor, known for many supporting roles in a variety of British film and television productions. He has worked extensively on the stage, becoming known for roles such as police inspectors, Soviet agents and similar parts...
was Smiley in a radio version of The Honourable Schoolboy
The Honourable Schoolboy
The Honourable Schoolboy is a spy novel by John le Carré. George Smiley tries to reconstruct an intelligence service and to run a successful offensive espionage operation to save the service from falling to the "war hawks" in government...
(1983).
Bernard Hepton
Bernard Hepton
Bernard Hepton is a British actor of stage, film and television.Hepton is known as a particularly versatile character actor. He trained at Bradford Civic Theatre school under Esme Church along with actors such as Robert Stephens...
, who played the part of Toby Esterhase
Toby Esterhase
Toby Esterhase is a fictional character in John le Carré's George Smiley spy novels including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and Smiley's People, as well as some of the stories in The Secret Pilgrim....
in the BBC television series, played Smiley in the BBC Radio series of both Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
(1988) and Smiley's People
Smiley's People
Smiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy...
(1990), with Charles Kay
Charles Kay
Charles Kay is an English actor.Kay was born in Coventry, West Midlands, the son of Frances and Charles Beckingham Piff....
taking the part of Esterhase.
A series of radio plays based on the novels featuring George Smiley, played by Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale, CBE is an English actor. He has been described by The Independent as "the greatest stage actor of his generation."-Early years:...
, commenced on 23 May 2009 on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
with Call for the Dead.
Comics
In the 1988 comic Shattered Visage, made as a sequel to the spy show The PrisonerThe Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
, Smiley is mentioned as having tutored a character in interrogation.
Smiley appears as Harry Lime's assistant in Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
's graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier is an original graphic novel in the comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. It was the last volume of the series to be published by DC Comics. Although the third book to be...
.
Parody
In the popular TV comedy series The Two RonniesThe Two Ronnies
The Two Ronnies is a British sketch show that aired on BBC1 from 1971 to 1987. It featured the double act of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, the "Two Ronnies" of the title.-Origins:...
, Ronnie Barker
Ronnie Barker
Ronald William George "Ronnie" Barker, OBE was a British actor, comedian, writer, critic, broadcaster and businessman...
played Smiley along the lines of Alec Guinness' portrayal in a sketch called Tinker Tailor Smiley Doyle. This was a joint send-up of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Professionals
The Professionals (TV series)
The Professionals was a British crime-action television drama series produced by Avengers Mk1 Productions and London Weekend Television that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. In all, 57 episodes were produced, filmed between 1977 and 1981. It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon...
TV show, with Ronnie Corbett
Ronnie Corbett
Ronald Balfour "Ronnie" Corbett, OBE is a Scottish actor and comedian of Scottish and English parentage who had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the British television comedy series The Two Ronnies...
playing a bungling version of Martin Shaw
Martin Shaw
Martin Shaw is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in shows such as The Professionals, The Chief, Judge John Deed and Inspector George Gently.-Theatrical background:...
's Doyle. Barker's Smiley provides the brains to the brawn of Corbett's Doyle and actually comes out the better. He is shown as something of an obsessive tea drinker. The sketch guest-starred Nicholas Smith from Are You Being Served?
Are You Being Served?
Are You Being Served? is a British sitcom broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was set in the ladies' and gentlemen's clothing departments of Grace Brothers, a large, fictional London department store. It was written mainly by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, with contributions by Michael Knowles and John...
. The name of Smiley's enemy Karla can be seen on a secretary's computer screen.