The Third Man

In 1965, the third member of Carl's gang, known only as the Third Man, was involved in the plot to steal the plans to a nuclear device with the potential to endanger the entire world.

After Carl successfully stole the plans, murdering MI5 agent Captain Blacker and blowing up his yacht in the process, the Third Man and Ritter both hid in a submarine at the bottom of the ocean while the authorities were on high alert. They sometimes played cards. In response to concern from his associate regarding how exactly they were going to get past the patrol boats which were combing the area, he assured Ritter that Carl would figure out a way.

Carl soon arrived to check in and brought a French newspaper claiming that fashion model Gayle Williams, in actuality Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward of International Rescue, was planning to track the gang down. When Carl translated the article for his colleagues, including the fact the report told exactly how many shots were fired and with what kind of gun, the Third Man worriedly told Carl that the situation was serious. Carl was not perturbed as he said what they were going to do to Williams would be just as serious.

Carl successfully kidnapped Lady Penelope from FAB 2 and brought her to a boathouse. The plan was then to explode the boathouse which would cause the patrol boats to investigate allowing the gang to escape in their submarine unseen. With ten minutes to go, the Third Man doubted if this plan would work and brought up the inevitability of the patrol boats detecting the submarine on their radars as soon as they started their motors should they fail to be diverted. Carl allayed some of his anxiety, proudly proclaiming that the bomb was powerful enough to interest anyone. Just seconds prior to the scheduled escape, Gordon Tracy in Thunderbird 4 was able to achieve penetration into the submarine and release a tranquilliser after some amount of drilling. Upon seeing this, the Third Man desperately attempted to reach the detonator while Carl called for them to get their oxygen masks but all three collapsed before the boathouse could be destroyed. (TV: The Man from MI.5)

Other sources dated the activities of International Rescue to the 1990s, (PROSE: The Dying Days) the 2060s, (PROSE: Titan Declares War! et al.) and the 2080s. (PROSE: Captain Scarlet in Death Crash! et al.)

Behind the scenes
The puppet which "played" the Third Man was also seen in several other episodes of Thunderbirds. It had another speaking role as Hale in The Impostors where he was voiced by Ray Barrett. The puppet appeared in a silent capacity at the Grand Hotel and at New York Central Airport in The Duchess Assignment, at the Australian Mountain Pass construction site in Atlantic Inferno, as a restaurant diner in Path of Destruction, and at the Indian Bazaar in the film Thunderbird 6.