Oleg Penkovsky had his sights set on moving to the West and building a better life with his family and, therefore, he was keen to expose some of the Soviets most valuable military secrets. The couple separated a few years before his death but were still legally married when he died. They recruited him in November 1960. "Think about going back to life after that intense drama," Cooke says. While Angus Wright's character, MI6 agent Dickie Franks, was indeed a real person who worked for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, according to his 2008 obituary in The Independent, he had nothing to do with the recruitment of civilian Greville Wynne and the claim that he did is based on incorrect reports in the press. The 12-year-old bears an uncanny resemblance to Benedict Cumberbatch, which caught the eye of the casting director on the Hollywood stars latest film. The strange post-Courier life of Greville Wynne", "Travelling salesman prevented WW3 in incredible true story behind new Cumberbatch film", "Nonfiction Book Review: The Spy Who Saved the World: How a Soviet Colonel Changed the Course of the Cold War by Jerrold L. Schecter, Author, Peter S. Deriabin, With Scribner Book Company $25 (0p) ISBN 978-0-684-19068-6", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greville_Wynne&oldid=1141334696, He was portrayed by Peter Lindford in the 2007, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 15:01. His wife Sheila divorced him and he became estranged from his only son Andrew. During a business trip, he made contact with Oleg Penkovsky in Moscow, a high-ranking Soviet Intelligence colonel. Penkovskys dynamism and enthusiasm, his wide-ranging and passionate denunciations of the Soviet system and its leaders illustrated with anecdotes, fascinated and captivated the American and British teams, write Schecter and Deriabin. Usually we get asked to do the same role, so we help each other out with learning the script and we give each other advice.. Copyright FameChain 2023, All rights reserved. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Her Other Children Greville Wynne Bio Details Full name Greville Maynard Wynne Gender Male Age 70 Date of birth Wednesday 19 Mar 1919 Birth place Wrockwardine Wood, Shropshire, Wales, UK Date of death: 28 Feb 1990 Place of death Cromwell Hospital, South Kensington, London, England, UK Cause of death Wynne was flown from Hungary to Moscow, where he was brutally tortured before being sentenced to eight years in a Soviet labour camp. Wynne returned to his life as a businessman. In November 1960, Greville Wynne, a 41-year-old British businessman, sat down for a lunch that would change his life. She had worked as his secretary and interpreter, as she spoke eight different languages. He battled depression and alcoholism. However, that claim seems unlikely to be true. [12] In April 1964, amid British concerns for his deteriorating health,[6] Wynne was released in exchange for the Soviet spy Konon Molody (also known as Gordon Lonsdale).[13]. In 1970 Wynne married Johanna Herma Van Buren. Penkovsky had made earlier offers to spy for the West. He said he first joined the British security services in 1938 and worked for them during World War II. Strange sequel. Of course, they had no idea how much the other would reveal. CU.SIGN "LONDON AIRPORT". British officials also never confirmed or denied Wynnes spying claims, and he didnt receive any official recognition for his work. Penkovsky and Wynnes spy activity produced mountains of information, would go on to play a role in the cuban missile crisis, and subsequently lead to their conviction in 1963. He passed away from throat cancer in London in 1990 at age 70. The week before Wynne entered Hungary, Penkovsky was captured by the Soviet Union. He got married again in 1970, to his secretary Herma van Buren, who also worked as an interpreter and spoke eight languages. You, in your own mind, have developed this sense of self-importance, says West. Some of the most advanced and very best spy cameras on the market. In The Courier, he plays Andrew, son of Greville Wynne, a real-life businessman who was recruited by MI6 as a spy. Spy Greville Wynne with his son Andrew and wife Sheila outside of their London home after being released from the Soviet prison in April 1964. This kind of psychological game made them easier to handle during interrogations.. On 22nd April 1964, Wynne was officially exchanged for a Soviet spy, who was being held in Britain. Andrew Wynne born 1952, age 69 (approx.) But his leaked information on Soviet missile capabilities and played a key role in President Kennedy'sstrong, successful stance duringthe Cuban Missile Crisis. In a later interview Wynne said: It came out in my interrogation in the early days of my imprisonment that they suspected me of black marketeering. "Greville Wynne was anordinary mandoing an extraordinary thing," Cumberbatch says. The MI6 agent suffered from depression after imprisonment and torture. Despite what hed been through, Wynne head shaved while in prison still managed to joke in an interview that the style was the prisons interpretation of a haircut. The loosely allied forces that made up the White Army favored capitalism and social democracy, which stood in contrast to the communist ideologies of the Red Army. Greville Wynne, who spied on the Soviet Union for Britain in the cold war and who spent 18 months in a Moscow prison after being caught, died of throat cancer on Wednesday, hospital officials. Wynne was a businessman at this point in his life and, during this month, he sat down for lunch not knowing that it would significantly change his life. Later on in his professional life, he became a businessman and often travelled to Eastern Europe. Protect those closest to you with our phone monitoring solutions. Greville Wynne's former father in law was, Greville Wynne's former mother in law was. Greville Maynard Wynne was a British spy famous for his involvement with, and imprisonment as a result of, the espionage activities of Oleg Penkovsky. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. "He came from a very humble background, but was always trying to better himself," says Cumberbatch. As the film alludes, life never returned to normal for Wynne, who battled depression and the psychological after-effects of his incarceration. During an interview at Sundance, Brosnahan told The Davis Clipper's Tom Haraldsen, "Emily is a combination of several true-life figures who worked with Benedict's character (Greville Wynne) to help the CIA penetrate the Soviet nuclear program.". Even the official accounts put out by American and Russian authorities regarding the Penkovsky affair include disinformation and spin that he, or any historian, has to navigate through. Director Cooke says Donovan is a composite character representing several real-life people, includingJanet Chisholmthewife of a Moscow-based British visa officer whoalso served as a conduit for information passed to the West by Penkovsky. Keir, who is from London, doesnt have acting classes but enjoys drama at school. After his release, Wynne struggled with depression and alcoholism. Home Spy Histories The Story Of British Spy Greville Wynne. The information that Penkovsky was able to obtain and the position of Wynne enabled the British and Americans to receive crucial information about the Soviet Union. The emaciated Wynne's returntohis middle-class Londonhomewherehis wife and child waited made for a jarring scene in newsreels at the time. Meanwhile, 43-year-old Oleg Penkovsky was sentenced to death for his role in the spy activity. The KGB waited to arrest Penkovsky so that they could build up a case against him that didn't expose their moles who had provided information about him. They separated several years prior to Wynne's death in 1990. Find out about the best deals and the latest Spy Gear first As weve established, Greville Wynne spent the majority of his professional life as an engineer and a businessman, so how did he actually become a spy? A British businessman accused of spying for the West has been sentenced to eight years' detention by a Moscow tribunal. Greville Wynne showed concern about Penkovskys slightly outlandish notions, but nonetheless went along with it. He divorced his first wife Sheila after his return before entering a second failed marriage. The fascinating part is how something that seems . For example, his obituaries in The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Times all claim that he did recruit the businessman Greville Wynne, which according to The Independent is false. When it comes to espionage, its hard to know who to trust. The UK's supply crisis puts extra pressure on Prime Minister Boris. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. Never formally acknowledged by the British government, Wynnewrote about his experiences in two self-aggrandizingbooks, "The Man From Moscow" (1967) and "The Man From Odessa" (1981). He was senior enough that you could sit down with the agents for hours and explain the entire context of how Soviet intelligence worked.. In researching The Courier true story, we discovered that in exchange for sharing restricted information, Soviet intelligence officer Oleg Penkovsky requested citizenship and military rank in either the U.S.A. or Great Britain. He was 71. He acted as a courier to transport top-secret information to London from Soviet agent Oleg Penkovsky. The President of the Court declared Greville Wynne, aged 44, would serve. [15], Later in life, Wynne wrote two books about his work for British intelligence: The Man from Moscow (1967) and The Man from Odessa (1981). Greville Maynard Wynne (19 March 1919 [2] - 28 February 1990) was a British engineer and businessman recruited by MI6 because of his frequent travel to Eastern Europe. Keir told the Daily Mail: My mum chatted to the casting director and said I look a lot like Benedict Cumberbatch, so they asked me for a video of myself, which I did in a cloakroom, and they eventually asked me in for a recall in person and I got the role.. Daniel's 5th outing as Bond gets bums back on seats in the cinema. In his memoirs A Man From Moscow published in 1967 and in a later book, The Man From Odessa, Wynne revealed further details of his spying activities. Assisting him in his role as "courier" is Oleg Penkovsky ( Merab Ninidze ), a far more experienced Russian agent. Herma van Buren Bio Details. Greville passed away on February 28 1990, at age 70. On 29th October 1962, Wynne travelled to Soviet-occupied Budapest just hours after the Soviets stood down during the Cuban Missile Crisis, going against the advice of MI6. "(Chisholm)played a very important role in the story that we couldn't get into, because it's a whole other movie," Cooke says. Andrew and Sheila lived in Britain whilst Greville served his prison sentence in Moscow. Never before had there been a Soviet spy like him.. Mr Andrew Greville Wynne. He later died of throat cancer in London. Another rumour alleged he was strapped to a stretcher and burned alive in a crematorium. However, life wasn't always easy for Wynne after his imprisonment. After his release he said: They treated me as they thought I should be treated.. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. Under the guise of a sales trip, he made his first contact with high-ranking Soviet intelligence colonel Oleg Penkovsky in Moscow.The Courier true story reveals that Wynne met Penkovsky eight months after the Soviet double agent had first tried to get in touch with the CIA by handing a bulky envelope of documents to two wary American students in Moscow. They had one son. In real life, Wynne's wife Sheila divorced him after he was released from the Moscow prison and returned to Britain. The MI6 specialist experienced post-arrest sadness and torment. An industrial sales consultant who regularly traveled through Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union representing British electrical and steel companies, Wynne was told it would be helpful if on his next trip, he could arrange for a meeting with a state committee in Moscow dedicated to developing opportunities with foreigners in science and technology, and report back on his conversations. The film is out now. He appeared on US game show To Tell The Truth. In his role as a British businessman who travelled Eastern Europe, working for British electrical and steel companies, Wynne was perfectly positioned to gain intelligence for MI6. "He started as a nave amateur. See our car trackers, asset trackers, GPS trackers and people trackers. In Greville Wynne's 1981 book The Man from Odessa, Wynne claims that Penkovsky committed suicide in a Soviet labor camp. Alex Palmer is a travel and culture writer who lives in Brooklyn. "He did make a life for himself, but Greville Wynne did pay a big price for his service. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. The businessman released from a Soviet labour camp was Greville Wynne, a figure portrayed in the media, and in British government protests, as an innocent engineer who had been incarcerated while attending a trade fair in Budapest in November 1962. . Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media, Greville Wynne Interview & Related Videos, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. Speaking about the moment he realised the game was up, Wynne recalled: Four men had appeared as if by magic. This was because he took regular business trips to Eastern Europe. He said there were no hard feelings from Lewis, who has been very supportive. The Ruislip Home That Contained A Soviet Spy Ring, Spy Histories: North Vietnams Defence Against America. It quoted unidentified close friends. Browse our recording devices. [4], In November 1960, Wynne was recruited by MI6 and asked to make a sales trip to Moscow,[6] where he made contact with Oleg Penkovsky, a high-ranking GRU officer. After being arrested by the KGB in 1962 and convicted of spying on May 11, 1963, Wynne was sentenced to eight years in Moscow's Lubyanka prison, where he was held in brutal conditions and subjected to severe beatings and psychological pressure. On 23 May 1966, he appeared as himself in an episode of the American television series To Tell the Truth, receiving two of four possible votes. Click here to Start FameChaining. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Greville Wynne, and is based on the true story of a British businessman who was recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service to be a message conduit with a Russian spy source Oleg Penkovsky (played by Merab Ninidze) in the 1960s. It's athank you from the West for what he sacrificed.". Stock Image ID: 1494267a Shelia Wynne Wife Of British Spy Greville Wynne Here With Son Andrew Wynne 1964. But the chummy interactions between the agents and Penkovskys prolific, even reckless, acquisition of materials grew increasingly perilousand finally caught the KGBs attention. He later appeared as himself on the May 23, 1967 episode of the American game show To Tell the Truth. In February 1990, it was announced Wynne had died of throat cancer at the age of 70 at the Cromwell Hospital, London. Like in the movie, they had one son together, Andrew. Liam Daniel, Courtesy of Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions. They separated several years ago. Greville Wynne had a wife, Sheila, and a son, Andrew. His dining companion, Dickie Franks, revealed himself to be an officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, and asked Wynne for his help. Greville Wynne's former in laws: Greville Wynne's former father in law was Gordon Beaton Greville Wynne's former mother in law was Elsie Beaton. On October 29 of that year, just hours after the Soviets stood down during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Wynne went to Soviet-occupied Budapest with a traveling exhibition of British industrial goods, against the advice of his MI6 handlers. He and his wife Sheila divorced not long after his release. In the article, well explore exactly who Greville Wynne was, his spy activity and how his story sparked such wide intrigue. Greville Wynne is a hero in history books and his family has benefitted from it as well. Something went wrong, please try again later. [4] Wynne married Sheila Beaton in 1946; the couple had a son, Andrew, born in 1952. Full name. "And Greville played a big part in that.". Greville Wynne had a wife, Sheila, and a son, Andrew. But historians believe he fabricated much of them one pointing out that he was never a trained spy. 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