Control ( fictional character ) - wikipedia Control ( fictional character ) This article is about the John Le Carre character. For other characters, see Control ( disambiguation ). Control is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Control is an intelligence officer who acts as the head of `` the Circus '', the British overseas intelligence agency. He is a character in the novels The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The Looking Glass War, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and is referred to in several others, usually by association with le Carré 's recurring protagonist George Smiley, who has served as Control 's right - hand man. `` Control '' is a nom de guerre ; the character 's real name is never given, and it is suggested that he successfully kept his true identity secret even from his inner circle of advisors, also that he has a wife who believes him to be a minor civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. In the original screenplay for the film adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley muses that Control had once told him that Howard Staunton was the greatest chess master Britain had ever produced. `` Staunton '' later turns out to be the name that Control used for the rental of a flat he uses. In the novels Control does not appear in the first two George Smiley novels. In The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, le Carré 's third novel, Control is already chief of the Circus, a position which was occupied by a civil servant named Maston, with whom Smiley clashed, in the first novel. Although he receives comparatively little page time in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and The Looking Glass War, in both novels Control is depicted as a master strategist who orchestrates a successful intelligence operation for the Circus. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold also shows him as quite ruthless, concealing from his own agent Alec Leamas the true aim of the operation on which Leamas was sent to East Germany, and having - against Leamas ' express wish - got Leamas ' beloved, Liz Gold, deeply involved in his plot, eventually leading to her death. In Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Control has died of natural causes as the story begins, but several characters reminisce on the inglorious end of his career, due to the infiltration of the Circus by a high - level mole run by the Soviet spymaster Karla. Control spent his final few months in office, already ill, losing power to his underling Percy Alleline and desperately trying to identify this mole, before falling into a trap set up by Karla to accelerate his departure. In other media Film Cyril Cusack portrayed Control in the 1965 film adaptation of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. In the 2011 adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Control was played by John Hurt. He is shown signing himself as `` C '', and a photograph is briefly shown of a younger Control in uniform as a brigadier. Television Alexander Knox portrayed Control in the 1979 television miniseries adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Works by John le Carré Novels Call for the Dead ( 1961 ) A Murder of Quality ( 1962 ) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold ( 1963 ) The Looking Glass War ( 1965 ) A Small Town in Germany ( 1968 ) The Naïve and Sentimental Lover ( 1971 ) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ( 1974 ) The Honourable Schoolboy ( 1977 ) Smiley 's People ( 1979 ) The Little Drummer Girl ( 1983 ) A Perfect Spy ( 1986 ) The Russia House ( 1989 ) The Secret Pilgrim ( 1990 ) The Night Manager ( 1993 ) Our Game ( 1995 ) The Tailor of Panama ( 1996 ) Single & Single ( 1999 ) The Constant Gardener ( 2001 ) Absolute Friends ( 2003 ) The Mission Song ( 2006 ) A Most Wanted Man ( 2008 ) Our Kind of Traitor ( 2010 ) A Delicate Truth ( 2013 ) A Legacy of Spies ( 2017 ) Films The Spy Who Came in from the Cold ( 1965 ) The Deadly Affair ( 1966 ) The Looking Glass War ( 1969 ) The Little Drummer Girl ( 1984 ) The Russia House ( 1990 ) The Tailor of Panama ( 2001 ) The Constant Gardener ( 2005 ) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ( 2011 ) A Most Wanted Man ( 2014 ) Our Kind of Traitor ( 2016 ) Television Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ( 1979 ) Smiley 's People ( 1982 ) A Perfect Spy ( 1987 ) A Murder of Quality ( 1991 ) The Night Manager ( 2016 ) Characters Control Toby Esterhase Peter Guillam Bill Haydon Karla Jim Prideaux Connie Sachs George Smiley Ricki Tarr Gerald Westerby Miscellaneous Moscow Centre Constant Gardener Trust The Incongruous Spy Smiley Versus Karla Book Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Control_(fictional_character)&oldid=814483908 '' Categories : Characters in British novels of the 20th century John le Carré Fictional British secret agents Fictional secret agents and spies Fictional spymasters Talk About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 9 December 2017, at 02 : 36. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who is control in tinker tailor soldier spy
Answer: John Hurt