Robert G. North

Robert Guilford North (January 26, 1913 – December 20, 1954) was an American film writer and producer who reportedly served as an undercover CIA agent in Thailand. North, who served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II, was a minor screenwriter in Hollywood before moving to Thailand with his wife Maxine in 1950, where he established the Far East Film Company with Thai producer Ratana Pestonji, co-producing Santi-Vina before his death in 1954. Later sources describe the company as a front for CIA activities in the country.

Early life and education Robert G. North was born on January 26, 1913, in Boston, Massachusetts, Night Wind (1948), also produced by Wurtzel, was co-written with Arnold Belgard, while Cummings moved into production with The Sign of the Ram (1948). North was involved (though uncredited) in its production, which was where he met Maxine Woodfield, an executive secretary for Columbia Pictures.

The following year, the couple moved to Thailand, ostensibly for North to research a film project. Its production was conceived specifically for the festival, whose deeper aim was to create a network of anti-communist film producers, and North, as a delegate for Thailand, was a strongly outspoken anti-communist voice in the festival's parent organization, the Federation of Motion Picture Producers in Southeast Asia (FPA).

North wrote the screenplay for Santi-Vina and co-produced the film with Rak Panyarachun. Although planned as the first of many high-quality productions, it was instead his only film from Thailand, as he died unexpectedly on September 20, 1954,

CIA connections Several later sources have claimed that North was an undercover agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, and that the Far East Film Company was a front for CIA activities in Thailand, importantly serving as a funding conduit to supply the Kuomintang in Burma. The company has also been reported as responsible for producing or distributing anti-communist propaganda films, in cooperation with Thai authorities. North was described by former CIA agent Joseph Burkholder Smith as a psychological warfare expert with the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC, the early CIA's covert operations branch). However, unlike other known anti-communist propaganda films of the time co-created by the US Information Service, Santi-Vina was strongly apolitical in tone, suggesting that it was not created as part of the propaganda effort.

E. Howard Hunt, a former CIA agent convicted in the Watergate scandal, mentioned in his memoirs that it was he who informed North of the newly formed OPC while visiting him and Maxine in Los Angeles, to which North expressed interest and Hunt promised to recommend him to the agency. He also noted that North, "posted in Bangkok, was trying to establish a Thai film industry, hoping to make a movie about an epic Thai legend". Screenwriter Charles Bennett noted that the script for Bangkok, which he co-wrote with North in 1950, was created for the CIA, probably intended as a cover, though it was never produced.

Personal life and family North had a large social circle; an obituary for his mother in Thailand's Standard newspaper in 1963 called him "one of the most popular Americans who have ever lived in Siam". He and Maxine were also friends with future US president Richard Nixon, and campaigned for him in the 1950 California Senate election, before moving to Thailand.