First Female MI5 Boss Wrote Thrillers, Inspired Judi Dench

Stella Rimington, the first female chief of Britain's MI5 intelligence agency and later a successful thriller writer, has died. She was 90. Her family said Monday in a statement that Rimington died on Sunday, the AP reports. The first woman to head a UK intelligence agency, Rimington was the inspiration for Judi Dench's portrayal of MI6 chief "M" in seven James Bond films. Ken McCallum, MI5's current director-general, said that "as the first avowed female head of any intelligence agency in the world, Dame Stella broke through long-standing barriers and was a visible example of the importance of diversity in leadership."

Born in London in 1935, Rimington studied English at Edinburgh University and later worked as an archivist. She was living in India with her diplomat husband in the mid-1960s when she was recruited by MI5, Britain's domestic security service, as a part-time clerk and typist in its New Delhi office. She joined the agency full time after moving back to London in 1969 and rose through the ranks, overcoming rules that kept the most prestigious roles, such as recruiting and running agents, for men only. She worked in each of MI5's operational branches—counterespionage, counterterrorism and counter-subversion—at a time when its work included sniffing out Soviet spies, infiltrating Northern Ireland militant groups, and spying on leftists, trade union leaders, and others accused of being subversives.

Rimington was appointed MI5 director-general in 1992, the first head of the organization to be publicly named, and her tenure saw the secretive organization become slightly more open, per the AP. Dench's first appearance as M, a role formerly played by men, was in GoldenEye in 1995. The film's producers said the casting was inspired by Rimington's appointment. Rimington later published a memoir, Open Secret—to the displeasure of the government—and a series of spy thrillers featuring fictional MI5 officer Liz Carlyle. The Devil's Bargain, published in 2022, introduced a new heroine, CIA officer Manon Tyler. Other women followed Rimington into top intelligence jobs.