- Are you ready to meet the real 007? - Let's talk about that.
♪ (theme music) ♪
- Good Mythical Morning. - Think of the most famous spies.
I'm talking Bond, Bourne, Powers. Now here's the thing. I wanna break it to
you guys. These are not real spies. These are fictional spies played by
actors in motion pictures. But I don't want to burst your bubble completely
today. In fact, today I want to restore your faith in fake movies being real by
highlighting celebrities who were actually spies.
And celebrities have a long history of wanting to be somehow involved in law
enforcement. It's pretty well known that Elvis -- (impersonation) Elvis Presley --
asked President Nixon if he could be an undercover DEA agent. And supposedely
asked for a badge and a gun. And it is not clear whether or not Nixon
- went through with that. - (impersonation) Probably not a good idea.
But it probably wasn't. But we're gonna be talking about some people who were
definitely doing some spying on the side, starting with one of the greatest
recording artists of all time. ♪ (Strangers in the night) ♪
♪ (exchanging glances. I'm talking about Frank Sinatra) ♪
- (Link) Oh! - (Rhett) ♪ (Who sang this song.) ♪
♪ (I hope you know who he is, and if you don't, you should be ashamed) ♪
- ♪ (of yourself) ♪ Okay. Uh… - He sounds different than that
- a little bit. In a better way. - "Ol' Blue Eyes" is what they called him.
- And he had serious ties to the mafia. - Of course he did. And the mafia is not
- a spy organization. Just to clarify. - (crew laughing offscreen)
- So he was a mobster. - Well, you've got to hold on so I can
- get back to the tie with the thing. - (laughing) Okay.
- Okay, so he was really involved with… - "I've got a tommy gun, see?"
…the giant Chicago mobster, Sam Giancana. And the question is if everybody knew
that Ol' Blue Eyes was doing this stuff on the side, why was he never arrested?
Well, it so goes that he made a deal with the CIA.
- Ah. Ooh. - The Central Intelligence Agency.
They said they would overlook his dealings with organized crime if Sinatra would
act as a courier for them. So basically what he would do is -- Sinatra flies all
over the world in a private jet, right? And he goes into all kinds of different
countries. And so he's like, "I can take secret documents and foreign
diplomats in my jet. And we can get through customs without being
stopped, 'cause hey, baby. I'm Frank Sinatra."
- (forced laughter) "Ain't nobody gonna - (laughing)
- talk to me." - (laughing)
♪ (Fly me to the moon) ♪
♪ (and let me take some secret documents) ♪
Yeah, there's a reasons why those weren't the lyrics.
Right. 'Cause that would've kinda blown his cover.
- It didn't fit, and it blew the cover. - Right.
I bet that was in the stipulations. "Frank, don't write these in any lyrics."
Like ♪ (I spied my way...) ♪ Come on, lemme work it a little bit?
- No, that's… - (stammering) Whatever you wanna do.
"Whatever I wanna do." I got one. Are you done with Frank?
The reason this all came out is beca-- A lot of people theorized about this, but
then after his death, his daughter wrote a book and kinda told all this stuff.
- (Link) It all came out. Buy the book. - Yeah. Yeah.
- Thanks, Tina. - Not a sponsor. Man, I wish Frank...
- No, that was his daughter's name. - …Sinatra was a sponsor.
I got one here. Cary Grant, A.K.A. Archibald Leach.
- Oh, that's catchy. - Now you're trying to figure out,
"Which name am I actually trying to recognize?" Cary Grant is a famous
Hollywood actor from the 30s and 40s. I don't know why he didn't keep
- Archy Link -- Leach. Archy Leach... - "Archy Link."
- I think I know why he changed it. - …is a great star power name.
- Why? - Because Cary Grant's a lot better.
It is. Now, if you don't know Cary Grant -- which you probably don't, because
you don't watch black and white movies -- think of him like if...
PewDiePlie (laughing). And you put an "l" in it. If PewDiePlie was George
Clooney, and he was in black and white movies. That's who Cary Grant would be.
Now, in 1939, the British Intelligent Agency MI6, which you've heard of,
began recruiting top Hollywood talent to help them sniff out possible Nazi
- sympathizers. So he's using his - Oh.
(deep voice) suave and debonaire ways. I'm Cary Grant. I'm in black and white
- movies. You know me. I'm sniffing out... - Oh, yeah.
- I'm not a Nazi. - …your Nazi ties.
- I just like sauerkraut. Hey, listen. - Oh.
It's fermented. It's good for ya. I like it on my dogs.
Hmm… This man is a Nazi. And he would turn to the nearest camera
and say it dramatically, and then they'd haul him away.
Is that how they did it? They did it by sauerkraut?
- That's not how they did it, but he… - That's how I would do it.
He was effective. Listen to this. Um, he...
He pointed out that Errol Flynn -- another famous actor at the time who was the
original Robin hood -- had Nazi ties. He was a Nazi sympathizer.
- Oh, of course he was. - It was rumored that he even met
- with Hitler. - How did that go down?
I don't know. (bad German accent) "I love zi tights."
- (laughing) - I don't know.
- "And your haircut." - "And your Dutch-boy haircut."
- I don't know. - He probably didn't wear the outfit.
I'm guessing that he didn't meet Hitler in the outfit. But I like to think that
- he did. - Yeah, robbin' from the rich,
- givin' to the Nazis. - ♪ (Robin Hood and little Hitler) ♪
- ♪ (sittin' on a tree do do do do do…) ♪ - (crew offscreen laughing)
- Cary Grant didn't sing. Is that a... - That's a, that's a song. You know.
- Okay, but that's not a Frank Sinatra. - ♪ (Robin Hood and little John) ♪
- I know. I know. It's Roger Miller. - It's by Roger Miller.
Leave Roger Miller outta this. He's not a Nazi sympathizer.
- Roger Miller was not a Nazi. - Errol Flynn...
But he did sing that song about Robin Hood and Hitler.
- No, he didn't. - Little John is Hitler.
Errol Flynn was never arrested, and Cary Grant was angry about it.
'Cause then they would met in movies, and it would be like, "Ugh, I'm mad at
you 'cause… what you did." There was drama.
Sauerkraut. Okay. Julia Child, speaking of sauerkraut. She was not a Nazi.
She was a spy. (high voice) And if you don't know who Julia Child was, she was
a woman who introduced French cooking to America, and she spoke like a
- Muppet. But she was not… - If you don't know who Julia Child was,
- you still don't know after listening to… - Just talked like this.
- …Rhett's impersonation. - And she was very big. And she
introduced French cooking to America, and she was not joking when she talked
- like this. - That's actually not bad.
Even though I've never heard her actually talk.
She was not doing an impersonation of a Muppet. She was just cooking
turkeys and soufflés. I love it when a soufflé comes out right.
- Was this parallel spy and cooking star… - It's very difficult.
Well, I would like to do my entire thing in this Julia Child impersonation.
- No, don't. Pop in and out of it. - But I won't.
- Yeah, let's pop in and out of it. - Okay. (normal voice) All right.
And just for point of reference because you did it, for the people at home, this
is like the Rosanna Pansino of French cooking. Okay?
- Okay, they get it. - Picture her.
Now, she actually applied for this thing called W.A.V.E.S. during World War II:
Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, which was just a division of the
Navy. She was rejected, because (Julia impersonation) You may not know,
I was 6' 3". Very tall for a woman. (normal voice) And I never understood
this whole principle, 'cause I'm too tall for the military. Don't you want
the big people in the military? Don't you want the big people to come out
over the hill? "Look at that! They've got a bunch of giants!"
- They have to fit in tunnels. - Why do we have to just sit back and...
- Cockpits, man. - Anyway.
- You gotta cram you people in cockpits. - But she was so undeterred that she
continued to pursue this dream to work (stammering) in the war,
that she ended up becoming a member of the O.S.S. That was the predecessor to the
CIA. The Office of Strategic Services. You know, and intelligence agenshee --
- agency. Yeah, yeah. - "Agenshee, see?"
She worked her way up to become the head of the registry in Kunming, China.
So just let me put this into perspective. (Julia impersonation) Julia Child was
dealing with secret documents. As many times as I've stuffed a turkey, I've also
- dealt with secret documents. - I wonder if she ever stuffed a turkey...
- Oh! Unfortunately yes. And I served - ...with secret document
- it to the prime minister of Zimbabwe. - Oh, you did it by accident.
Yeah, accidentally he got a secret document in his esophagus.
- (laughing) Choking on secret documents. - Then I had to give him the Heimlich.
I invented that as well. (normal voice) She did not invent
- the Heimlich. - That's a great assassin move there.
- You kill two birds with one stone. - What a woman, though!
- Secret document and an assassination. - You know, she's making peking duck...
(raspy voice) What a woman. A tall, cooking woman.
- All right. - Who's a spy. That's my type.
All right, I've got my favorite one. Christopher Lee, A.K.A. Saruman
- of Lord of the Rings. Super villain... - Rest in Peace.
- He was also Dracula and Dooku. - Yes.
- And many other things. Count Dooku. - Right. A lot of things.
He died of sheer awesomeness. When you've been awesome for 93 years...
- (stammering) He can check out in style. - Yeah, he did. It was voluntary.
- So RIP, VIP, Christopher Lee. - Oh, wow.
If it's not too late, we can still put that on a t-shirt. But here's the story.
He not only played a Bond villain as a role. He played the deadly assassin
Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with The Golden Gun. He actually was a
deadly assassin in World War II, Rhett. He volunteered for the British Royal
Air Force but was placed in the Intelligence department. Why? Because he
- looked like Saruman. Probably. - I doubt he went into that interview
- looking like that. - Maybe he had a lightsaber.
He probably had a buzz cut. I'm almost sure he had a buzz cut. But he probably
- still had the eyeballs. And the eyebrows. - He was promoted to the --
And he was doing heavy metal? Like dun dun dun dun!
- He had a band. He did. That's a fact. - "He had a band."
Citation needed. Special Operations Executive is what he was promoted to,
and, little known fact -- at least I didn't know it, or I only knew it
a little -- Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond 007, was also in the Special
- Operations Executive. So… - Mm. Mm.
He based his James Bond writings on his experience there. Christopher Lee was
- there. Could he be at least part of... - Are you saying that this happened?
- …the real 007? No. They were definitely - You're speculating.
both there.
- He could've been… - And then he played a villain.
- He didn't let him actually play Bond. - No, he didn't. But he may have...
- 'Cause it would've been too close. - Right, right.
- Too obvious. - You can't blow the cover.
- You can't have 007 play 007... - You can't blow the cover.
- …Saruman. - "My gaze pierces cloud, shadow, earth
- and flesh." That was his call line. - Oh.
- That was well before Lord of the Rings. - I remember that.
He was also in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Well, no. That's
what the branch was called: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
- Hm. Hmm… - (British accent) So, let's see if we can
have a spot of tea, with perhaps some poison for the man.
(also accented) Okay, and maybe we'll stab him in his abdomen.
Oh, no, let's stab him in the back. It'll be more ungentlemanly.
- Oh, yes it would be. - And look, there's an old lady crossing
- the street. Shall we help her? - I could give him a wet willy.
- Is that bad enough? - Oh, you're gonna assassinate
- the old lady with a wet willy? - A little nipple twister.
- Oh, goodness. Not the old lady. - That's (scoffs)
I'm talking about the lady crossing the street.
- Whoa, it's really twisty. - Let's...
- It's really twisty. - it's also the Ministry of
- Inappropriate Warfare. Okay. - (crew offscreen laughing)
Christopher Lee. Rest in peace, VIP… Whatever I said earlier. (stammering)
- It really fit together better that time. - But it does make you wonder:
are there any current Hollywood stars who are doing this on the side?
- I don't know. - Theorize in the comments. Let us know.
- Could be Internetainers. - Yes, well...
- Stuffing turkeys with documents. - That would never happen.
- Thanks for liking and commenting. - You know what time it is.
- I'm Michael. - And I'm [Wayne].
And it's time to spin The Wheel of Mythicality.
Show your mythicality in public by getting a Good Mythical Morning t-shirt,
- available at rhettandlink.com/store. - Or wear it secretly as a spy.
Click through to Good Mythical More. We had a friend who almost became
a spy until we got involved. We'll tell you that story.
- Woop woop woop! (continued) - ♪ (bells rinigng) ♪
Congratulations toooo….
- ♪ (celebratory fanfare) ♪ - (both Rhett & Link) @amdeus_wolf!
(Rhett) You win a bad dad joke. Hey, Link.
- Why did @amadeus_wolf change his - ♪ (muted trumpet) ♪
iPod's name to Titanic?
Because it was syncing.
- (forced laughter) - (forced laughter) ("falling" whistle)
Ugh.
[Captioned by Kevin: GMM Captioning Team]