Label used by the British press to refer to the person who was involved in setting up the escape to the Soviet Union of British spies Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess. Eventually, the label was accurately pinned on Harold (Kim) Philby. Later came the labels “fourth man” and “fifth man”.
After the exposure of Philby, author Graham Greene, himself a former intelligence officer under Philby, pointed out that the first use of “third man” was by Greene in The Third Man, a great 1950 suspense movie whose plot centered on the man in the title role in postwar Vienna. The film's plot revolved around black market racketeering, not espionage.
