Film divides CIA spymaster William Colby’s family

Sally Shelton-Colby is disturbed by her stepson’s take on her dead husband in the film “The Man Nobody Knew,’’ as is the rest of the Washington-based Colby clan.

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Sally Shelton-Colby, pictured in Washington, the second wife of former CIA director William Colby, disputes a documentary produced about her late husband. The documentary, "The Man Nobody Knew," was made by Carl Colby, William Colby's son from his first marriage.

Linda Davidson / The Washington Post

Filmmaker Carl Colby, a son of former CIA director William Colby, made a documentary about his late father, who is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. In “The Man Nobody Knew,” Carl, the narrator, traces his father’s career as an intelligence operative in World War II to his tenure as CIA director. Carl paints his father as a mysterious family man more occupied with the agency’s mission against communism and less concerned about wife Barbara and their five kids.

Linda Davidson / The Washington Post

1950s

William Colby is surrounded by family members at a summer home in Vermont in the 1950s. From left are daughter Catherine, who died in 1973; Barbara, Colby's first wife; and sons Carl and Jonathan.

/ First Run Features

Sept. 12, 1975

Then-CIA director William Colby at a press conference in Langley, Va.

Larry Morris / The Washington Post

Jan. 31, 1969

William Colby, the CIA's chief spy in Saigon, inspects the old shotgun of a self-defense group member in a rural village in Thua Thien province of Vietnam.

Horst Faas / AP

April 22, 1975

William Colby, director of the CIA, passes a sign in the hallway of a House office building as he arrives to testify before a House appropriations subcommittee in Washington.

/ AP

December 1978

Former CIA director William Colby is flanked by his wife, Barbara Colby, right, and daughter Christine Marie Colby at the International Debutante Ball in New York.

Richard E. Drew / AP

Late 1980s

Former CIA director William Colby aboard his sailboat Eagle Wing II on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

Courtesy Sally Shelton-Colby

Nov. 20, 1984

Sally Shelton-Colby and William Colby on a gondola after being married in Venice.

Courtesy Sally Shelton-Colby

1984

Sally Shelton-Colby and William Colby in their Georgetown home the day they got engaged.

Courtesy Sally Shelton-Colby

1990

Former CIA director William Colby visits KGB Chief Vladimir Kryuchkov in Moscow.

Courtesy Sally Shelton-Colby

1990

Former CIA director William Colby visits the Kremlin in Moscow.

Courtesy Sally Shelton-Colby

1990

Former CIA director William Colby on his sailboat Eagle Wing II near the Bay Bridge in Annapolis.

Courtesy Sally Shelton-Colby

May 6, 1996

Maryland Natural Resources Police and Charles County Sheriff's officers carry the body of former CIA director William Colby away from the water where he was found in Rock Point, Md., several days after vanishing on a solo canoe trip near his vacation home.

John Mummert / AP

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