Vittorio Zunino Celotto/WireImageArnon Milchan has produced scores of notable Hollywood films like Pretty Woman, Under Siege, Fight Club and most recently 12 Years a Slave.
But it turns out that was just his day job.
In an extensive interview he gave to Israel's documentary program, Uvda, the Tinseltown producer and chairman of New Regency Productions, is revealing publicly for the first time that he moonlighted as a spy for Israel.
Per the Guardian, Milchan, who was born in Israel, told the show that he was recruited by Israel's current President Shimon Peres in the 1960s to work for the country's Bureau of Scientific Relations while he was running his own fertilizer business.
As part of his clandestine mission, Milchan says he served as an arms dealer and helped procure scientific and technical information, including technology that helped Israel's secret nuclear weapons program.
"Do you know what it's like to be a 20-something-year-old kid [and] his country lets him be James Bond? Wow! The action! That was exciting," said the big screen veteran.
In the '70s, Milchan moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as producer and before long he made a name for himself producing the TV miniseries Masada which led to film projects he shepherded, such as Once Upon a Time in America and Brazil with Robert De Niro followed by hits like The War of the Roses, Free Willy, L.A. Confidential and Natural Born Killers among many others.
But it was his work as a seemingly natural born spy that offered an equal amount of excitement, if not more.
"If people knew how many times I risked my life, back and forth, again and again, for my country," Milchan told the show. "I did it for my country, and I'm proud of it."
De Niro was also interviewed on Uvda and recalled the time he questioned the producer about his cloak-and-dagger work after hearing rumors about it.
"He told me that he was an Israeli and that of course he would do these things for his country," said the Oscar winner.
Ben Affleck, who worked with Milchan on Daredevil, called Arnon "a very mysterious, exotic figure in Hollywood" and admitted he didn't know whether the rumors of his shadowy past were true or not.
Now we know.