Michael S. Leshing was an American citizen and the Superintendent of Twentieth Century Fox film laboratories in the 1940s. In 1945 he was one of five honored with an Academy Award for Technical Achievement for his laboratory work in color film processing.
During World War II, Leshing was linked to a covert relationship with Soviet intelligence. In 1943, a Venona project decryption reported that he provided the KGB's Technical Line intelligence documents and a formula for color motion pictures and other film-processing technology.
Leshing is referenced in the following Venona project decryption:
- 512 KGB San Francisco to Moscow, 7 December 1943.
References
- "1945 (18th) - SCIENTIFIC OR TECHNICAL AWARD (Class III)". Awards Technology & Innovation Awards. Kodak. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
To MICHAEL S. LESHING, BENJAMIN C. ROBINSON, ARTHUR B. CHATELAIN AND ROBERT C. STEVENS OF 20th Century-Fox Studio and JOHN G. CAPSTAFF of Eastman Kodak Company for the 20th Century-Fox film processing machine.
- "AMPAS - Index of Motion Picture Credits - Films]". Academy Award database. Archived from the original on 2005-05-09. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
- Haynes, John Earl; Klehr, Harvey (1999). Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 292, 355. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
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