Antonio Méndez

Tony Mendez
Mendez (left) with Jimmy Carter after the Canadian Caper
Birth name	Antonio Joseph Mendez
Born	(1940-11-15) November 15, 1940 (age 76) Eureka, Nevada
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	Central Intelligence Agency
Years of service	1963–1990
Rank	SIS-2
Unit	Graphics and Authentication Division
Battles/wars	Iran hostage crisis, Cold War
Awards	Intelligence Star (1980) CIA Trailblazer Award (1997) Order of the Sphinx (2000)

Antonio Joseph "Tony" Mendez (born November 15, 1940) is an American CIA technical operations officer, now retired, who specialized in support of clandestine and covert CIA operations. He has written three memoirs about his CIA experiences.

Mendez was decorated, and is now widely known, for his on-the-scene management of the "Canadian Caper" during the Iran hostage crisis, in which he exfiltrated six American diplomats from Iran in January 1980. He arranged to have them pose as a Canadian film crew. As part of their cover, the diplomats carried passports issued by the Canadian government to document them as Canadian citizens.

After declassification of records, the full details of the operation were reported in a 2007 article by Joshuah Bearman in Wired magazine. This was loosely adapted for the screenplay and development of the 2012 Academy Award-winning film Argo, directed by Ben Affleck, who also starred as Mendez. Mendez also attended the 70th Golden Globe Awards to give a speech about the film, where it was nominated (and later won) for Best Motion Picture – Drama.

Mendez was born in Eureka, Nevada, in 1940 to John George Mendez (June 12, 1917, Atlantic, Iowa – October 24, 1943, Kimberly, Nevada) and Neva June Tognoni (October 23, 1919, Preston, Nevada - October 6, 1995, Chandler, Arizona). He attended local public schools. His father was of Mexican descent, and his mother had Italian, French, and Irish ancestry. In an interview by Open Your Eyes magazine, Mendez said that his father died when he was quite young; he never learned to speak Spanish and was cut off from his father's Mexican-American culture.