Voting Station

Guy Burgess

Please vote to return to collections.

Spy

The Resume

    (April 16, 1911-August 30, 1963)
    Born in Devonport, England, United Kingdom
    Member of the Cambridge Spy Ring
    BBC corespondent and producer (1936-44)
    Worked for the British intelligence service MI6 (1938-41)
    Worked in the British Foreign Office (1944-51)
    Defected to the Soviet Union with Don Maclean (1951)

Why he might be annoying:

    The Soviet agent who recruited the Cambridge Spy Ring originally rejected him, describing him as 'very smart, but superficial.'
    He was brought into the spy ring only after approaching Maclean and hinting that he knew what Maclean was up to.
    He abused his BBC expense account (such as always traveling first class, and insisting on taking taxis instead of buses or the underground) enough to draw complaints from his supervisors.
    When he was sent to the British embassy in Washington, DC, the FBI described him as 'a louche, foul-mouthed gay with a penchant for seducing hitchhikers.'
    Harold Nicolson wrote about the effects of his heavy drinking, 'Guy used to have the most rapid and acute mind I knew. Now he is just an imitation of what he once was.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge.
    Despite his Soviet handlers' initial misgivings, he proved an effective spy, with defector Vladimir Petrov noting, 'The volume of the material Burgess supplied was so colossal that the cipher clerks of the Soviet embassy were at times were almost fully employed in enciphering it so it could be radioed to Moscow.'
    His defection alongside Maclean resulted in his friend Kim Philby being suspected of tipping them off, ruining Philby's chances of being appointed head of MI6, which would have been the ultimate coup for a double agent.
    He was portrayed by Rupert Everett in 'Another Country,' Alan Bates in 'An Englishman Abroad,' and Benedict Cumberbatch in 'The Turning Point.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 163 Votes: 60.74% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 16 Votes: 56.25% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 88 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 140 Votes: 66.43% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 18 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 19 Votes: 57.89% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 13 Votes: 53.85% Annoying