# Interesting but obscure biographical stories?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-but-obscure-biographical-stories/800429>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 1, 2017, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-but-obscure-biographical-stories/800429 "2017-11-01T20:10:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-but-obscure-biographical-stories/800429/21 "2017-11-03T02:55:52Z")

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Possibly you all are already aware of this one but, if not, the Chevalier d’Éon was quite a person.

> **[Chevalier d'Éon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevalier_d%27%C3%89on)**
>
> Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont or Charlotte-Geneviève-Louise-Augusta-Andréa-Timothéa d'Éon de Beaumont (5 October 1728 – 21 May 1810), usually known as the Chevalier d'Éon or the Chevalière d'Éon (chevalière is the female equivalent of chevalier, meaning knight), was a French diplomat, spy, and soldier. D'Éon fought in the Seven Years' War, and spied for France while in Russia and England. D'Éon had androgynous physical characteristics and natural abilities as...

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**Author:** ![edwards\_beard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@edwards\_beard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwards_beard)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-but-obscure-biographical-stories/800429/22 "2017-11-03T13:12:56Z")

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> [@furryman](#):
>
> I first heard of Josephine Baker years ago. She was an extremely popular black exotic dancer who lived back in the 1920’s as well as one of the first successful black business women. There was a reference to her in the movie _The Triplets of Bellville_. And she was recently featured in a time travel TV series.  
> [Josephine Baker - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker)

[HBO did a movie on her in the early 90s.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102167/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl)

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**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-but-obscure-biographical-stories/800429/23 "2017-11-03T18:11:01Z")

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I saw a talk a few years ago by a gent called Victor Gregg. He’d served in the British Army - literally press ganged by a recruiter (“hot meal for you son, just sign here…”).

Escapdes included travelling alone across the north Africa deserts, routinely secretly meeting with Germans at night to swap cigarettes for booze (and then doing his damnedest to kill them the next day). At one point, he was captured by the Germans, and held in Dresden… just before the city was firebombed. He escaped from a blazing prison.

After the war he joined MI6, and became a communist. Not a double agent, mind you - a patriot who faithfully served his country, but who happened to believe in communism.

The talk we saw - at a literary festival - was by Mr Gregg himself, and the writer who had ghost-written his book. Amazingly, the ghost managed to turn that lot into a dull read.

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