Mike Fleming

Tony MendezEXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed Tony Mendez, the retired CIA operative played by Ben Affleck in Argo as he smuggled six diplomatic workers out of Iran. The agency has actually signed Mendez and his wife, Jonna, also an agency veteran. While it’s hard to top a movie about your life that wins the Oscar for Best Picture, the agency obviously believes there are more stories where Argo came from. The agency will rep the duo in film, television and all other media.

Mendez’s Argo experience was a well kept secret until it was declassified, and the couple had other adventures working undercover. UTA will be working closely with the Mendez’s publishing agent and producing partner Christy Fletcher of New York-based Fletcher & Co. to represent the Mendez’s as well as the many declassified stories from their careers. Some of those were chronicled in his book, Master Of Disguise, the first-ever memoir from a top operative to be authorized by the CIA. The couple also wrote Spy Dust, a true-life thriller of how the duo fell in love and married during the last chapter of the Cold War. The Mendez’s, who helped advise the development of the International Spy Museum in Washington DC, continue to train and consult to the agency community.