In one of the strangest real-life capers to link Tinseltown and intelligence work, legendary make‑up artist John Chambers — best known for Spock's ears and the apes of Planet of the Apes — was quietly recruited by CIA officer Tony Mendez in 1980 to manufacture the perfect Hollywood cover story for the rescue of six American embassy staff hiding with the Canadian ambassador in Tehran. Chambers, who had been doing clandestine work for the Agency in the late 1970s creating disguise kits for operatives around the world, helped fabricate an entire fake film production called Argo. To make the hoax bulletproof he leased Michael Douglas's former office at Sunset Gower Studios (while The China Syndrome was in production), ordered phony business cards, bought trade ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, staged a glitzy press party at a Los Angeles nightclub and planted a receptionist — the wife of fellow make‑up man Robert Sidell — to answer calls and keep up appearances.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s
How Hollywood Prosthetics Helped Steal Six Americans Out of Tehran: John Chambers and the Canadian Caper
John Chambers / 1970s
In one of the strangest real-life capers to link Tinseltown and intelligence work, legendary make‑up artist John Chambers — best known for Spock's ears and the apes of Planet of the Apes — was quietly recruited by CIA officer Tony Mendez in 1980 to manufacture the perfect Hollywood cover story for the rescue of six American embassy staff hiding with the Canadian ambassador in Tehran. Chambers, who had been doing clandestine work for the Agency in the late 1970s creating disguise kits for operatives around the world, helped fabricate an entire fake film production called Argo. To make the hoax bulletproof he leased Michael Douglas's former office at Sunset Gower Studios (while The China Syndrome was in production), ordered phony business cards, bought trade ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, staged a glitzy press party at a Los Angeles nightclub and planted a receptionist — the wife of fellow make‑up man Robert Sidell — to answer calls and keep up appearances.
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