Boris Morros (; January 1, 1891 - January 8, 1963) was an American

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

member, Soviet agent, and

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...

. He also worked at

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

, where he produced films as well as supervising their music department.

Life and career

Morros was born in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia. He emigrated with his family in late in 1922, sailing from the Port of

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

to the Port of New York on the S/S ''Constantinople''. In 1934, he was enlisted as a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

spy, following which time

Vasily Zarubin Vasily Mikhailovich Zarubin (russian: Васи́лий Михáйлович Зарýбин) (4 February 1894 – 18 September 1972) was a Soviet intelligence officer. In the United States, he used the cover name Vasily Zubilin and served as th ...

became his first contact in 1936. The mysterious "Mr Guver" letter, sent to

Director

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation � ...

in 1943 from an anonymous source, who is now widely believed to be KGB Officer Vasily Mironov, named Morros as an agent working with

Soviet intelligence This is a list of historical secret police organizations. In most cases they are no longer current because the regime that ran them was overthrown or changed, or they changed their names. Few still exist under the same name as legitimate police fo ...

and identified

Elizabeth Zarubina Elizaveta Yulyevna Zarubina (russian: Елизавета Юлиевна Зарубина; 1 January 1900 – 14 May 1987; Ester Yoelevna Rosentsveig (Эстер Иоэльевна Розенцвейг)) was a Soviet spy, podpolkovnik of the ...

as Morros' contact. In December 1943, Zarubina drove with Morros to

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, where they met with Alfred Stern and his wife

Martha Dodd Stern Martha Eccles Dodd (October 8, 1908 – August 10, 1990) was an American journalist and novelist. The daughter of William Edward Dodd, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first Ambassador to Germany, Dodd lived in Berlin from 1933–1937 an ...

. Soviet intelligence wanted to use an investment from the Sterns in Morros' sheet music company to serve as cover for

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

. The Sterns invested $130,000 in the Boris Morros Music Company. In 1947, Morros became a counterspy for the FBI. He reported on

Jack Soble Jack Soble (May 15, 1903 – 1967) was a Lithuanian who, together with his brother Robert Soblen, penetrated Leon Trotsky's entourage for Soviet intelligence in the 1920s. Later, in the United States, he was jailed, with his wife Myra, on ...

and members of the Soble spy ring, while also passing low-level secrets and misinformation back to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. Morros' codename in Soviet intelligence and the

Venona The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service (later absorbed by the National Security Agency), which ran from February 1, 1943, until Octob ...

files was "FROST." As a double-agent for the FBI, Morros solicited funds from the MGB (the Soviet intelligence service) to create a U.S.

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...

. Like the Boris Morros Music Company, the network would have served as espionage cover, but the MGB never funded the venture. In 1960, ''

Man on a String ''Man on a String'' is a 1960 American neo-noir crime film directed by Andre DeToth and starring Ernest Borgnine and Kerwin Mathews. It was the last film that DeToth directed in the United States. Plot A government intelligence agency in Washin ...

'', a feature film loosely based on Morros' adventures as a counterspy, was released.

Ernest Borgnine Ernest Borgnine (; born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but relaxed voice and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin. A popular perfor ...

played Morros, who co-wrote the screenplay.Internet Movie Database
Man on a String (1960)
accessed June 13, 2011 Morros, who was employed by

, worked there in several capacities. His movie production credits include ''

The Flying Deuces ''The Flying Deuces'', also known as ''Flying Aces'', is a 1939 buddy comedy film starring Laurel and Hardy, in which the duo join the French Foreign Legion. It is a partial remake of their short film ''Beau Hunks'' (1931). Plot While the boys ...

'' (1939) with

Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy were a British-American Double act, comedy duo act during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–19 ...

and ''

Second Chorus ''Second Chorus'' is a 1940 Hollywood musical comedy film starring Paulette Goddard and Fred Astaire and featuring Artie Shaw, Burgess Meredith and Charles Butterworth, with music by Artie Shaw, Bernie Hanighen and Hal Borne, and lyrics by J ...

'' (1940) with

Paulette Goddard Paulette Goddard (born Marion Levy; June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990) was an American actress notable for her film career in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Born in Manhattan and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Goddard initially began her career a ...

and

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...

. Morros also worked with

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...

Martha Raye Martha Raye (born Margy Reed; August 27, 1916 – October 19, 1994), nicknamed The Big Mouth, was an American comic actress and singer who performed in movies, and later on television. She also acted in plays, including Broadway. She was honored ...

, and

Rudy Vallee Rudy or Rudi is a masculine given name, sometimes short for Rudolf, Rudolph, Rawad, Rudra, Ruairidh, or variations thereof, a nickname and a surname which may refer to: People Given name or nickname *Rudolf Rudy Andeweg (born 1952), Dutch poli ...

. Morros was also the music director at Paramount, where he conducted the music of such composers as

George Antheil George Johann Carl Antheil (; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author, and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds – musical, industrial, and mechanical – of t ...

, among others. He died in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on January 8, 1963.

Selected filmography

* '' Night of Mystery'' (1937) * ''

'' (1939)

Sources

*Boris Morros, ''My Ten Years as a Counter-Spy'' (London: Werner Laurie, 1959)

References

External links

*
The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP)
has the full text of former KGB agent

Alexander Vassiliev Alexander Vassiliev (russian: Александр Васильев; born 1962) is a Russian-British journalist, writer and espionage historian living in London who is a subject matter expert in the Soviet KGB and Russian SVR. A former officer in ...

's Notebooks containing new evidence on Morros' cooperation with the Soviet Union
Counterspy: The Russian Plot to Take Over Hollywood
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morros, Boris 1891 births 1963 deaths American entertainment industry businesspeople American spies for the Soviet Union American people in the Venona papers American spies against the Soviet Union Espionage in the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation informants American communists People from Saint Petersburg