Thomas Stanhope, opera costumer and CIA official, dies

WASHINGTON -- Thomas Stanhope was known as a master of disguises, but the reputation had nothing to do with his long career at the Central Intelligence Agency. For nearly four decades, he moonlighted as the principal costume dresser at the Washington Opera.

Suited up in a utility belt bearing scissors and sewing supplies, he came to the aid of any lady in need of a wig adjustment and any gentleman who required his cape secured for a duel.

When a lacy gown suffered a tear, Stanhope restored it. In Mozart's "Don Giovanni," he coordinated the speedy costume change that allows the lecherous titular nobleman to assume the identity of his valet.

"I love the theater," he once said. "It's a world of total make-believe."

The morning after an opera performance, Stanhope was back at his day job at the CIA. He held administrative positions at the spy agency for nearly 30 years, his family said, with duties that included helping prepare the president's daily briefing.

Stanhope, 87, died July 8 at the Washington Home & Community Hospices, said his daughter, Martha Timlin, who is one of two wardrobe supervisors at the Washington National Opera. (Her husband, Tim Timlin, is the other.)

Thomas Alfred Stanhope was born in Barney, Ga., and grew up in Washington. He served in the Navy and then in the Army during World War II. After the war, he enrolled at George Washington University and received a bachelor's degree in English literature and theater and a master's degree in literature and writing.

Stanhope joined the Opera Society of Washington, as the Washington National Opera then was known, at its inception in the mid-1950s and worked with makeup and props as well as in the wardrobe operation.

Stanhope also worked for other Washington area houses and productions.

He frequently collaborated with his late wife, the former Jane Summers, a hair and makeup artist.

For the Stanhopes, theater was a family affair. Their children assisted in one production of Verdi's "Aida" that required full-body painting for the actors portraying Ethiopian prisoners.

Stanhope's daughter said one of his final CIA assignments came during the Iran hostage crisis and involved supporting the Canadian diplomats who hid the few Americans not seized during the 1979 event. His life, he once said, "was like living in two different worlds."