George Smiley is a British intelligence officer created by John le Carré, first appearing in Call for the Dead (1961). Short, overweight, balding, and bespectacled, he comes across as polite and self-effacing, letting others mistreat him, including his unfaithful wife, while hiding a sharp memory, deep tradecraft skill, and a streak of ruthlessness underneath. (inventaire)
Full description
Le Carré introduced Smiley in his first novel, more a detective story than a spy story, and the character became his best-known creation, returning across several later books. Le Carré built Smiley as a deliberate answer to James Bond, a figure he thought gave readers a false and harmful picture of what espionage actually looks like. (britannica) (inventaire)
Physically, Smiley doesn’t fit the spy archetype at all. Le Carré describes him as short and fat, wearing expensive clothes that never quite fit right, so he ends up looking more like a bookie than a spymaster. That mismatch between appearance and ability runs through the whole character. He leads an unglamorous life and comes off as a deceptively bland middle-aged man, yet his subordinates and colleagues trust and respect him. He also carries real friction with the institution he serves. He clashes with the intelligence bureaucracy at times and sometimes feels his professional duty runs against his personal sense of honor. (classicistranieri)
Le Carré gave him a backstory built more from scattered hints than a full biography. He was likely born around 1906 to middle-class parents in southern England, went to a minor public school and then an unremarkable Oxford college, and studied modern languages with a focus on Baroque German literature. In July 1928, while he was weighing postgraduate study, a man named Jebedee recruited him into the Secret Intelligence Service. His personal life centers on his marriage to Ann Sercomb and his working relationships with colleagues like Peter Guillam and Inspector Mendel. His most difficult opponent across the novels is a Soviet master spy named Karla. (classicistranieri)
Smiley’s career runs through most of le Carré’s major work. In A Murder of Quality, he’s already resigned from the service and investigates a schoolmaster’s wife’s murder, then returns to the service for smaller roles in The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and The Looking-Glass War before taking the lead in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, Smiley’s People, and The Secret Pilgrim. He also appears in A Legacy of Spies and, in a novel by another author continuing the series, Karla’s Choice.
The character has had a long life on screen and radio too. Actors who’ve played him include Rupert Davies, James Mason, George Cole, Alec Guinness, Peter Vaughan, Bernard Hepton, Denholm Elliott, Simon Russell Beale, and Gary Oldman, among others.
Sources
Wikipedia, “George Smiley” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Smiley
Inventaire.io character entry — https://inventaire.io/entity/wd:Q2335880
Britannica, “George Smiley” — https://www.britannica.com/print/article/549604
Britannica, “John le Carré” — https://www.britannica.com/print/article/333310
Fanlore, “George Smiley (character)” — https://fanlore.org/wiki/George_Smiley_(character)
Classicistranieri (archived Wikipedia mirror) — https://classicistranieri.com/en/g/e/o/George_Smiley_2d70.html