The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Characters in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
8 characters, main characters first.Main characters
Alec Leamas
A weary, hard-drinking British agent sent on what is meant to be his final mission, posing as a defector to East German intelligence.
Antagonists
Hans-Dieter Mundt
The ruthless head of the East German intelligence service's Abteilung, the man Leamas's cover operation is built to destroy.
Supporting characters
Peter Guillam
A Circus officer who assists in running Leamas's operation from the London side.
George Smiley
A veteran Circus officer, recurring across le Carré's novels, who moves quietly at the edges of Leamas's operation.
Also in A Murder of Quality, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley's People
Liz Gold
A young English librarian and Communist Party member whose relationship with Leamas draws her unwittingly into his mission.
The Control
The enigmatic head of the Circus who devises the plan to send Leamas undercover and discredit East Germany's spymaster.
Jens Fiedler
Mundt's deputy in East German intelligence, whose suspicion of his own chief drives much of the novel's interrogation scenes.
Karl Riemeck
An East German bureaucrat secretly working as a British agent within Leamas's Berlin network.