Ellis M. Zacharias

Ellis Mark Zacharias, Sr. (January 1, 1890 – June 27, 1961) was a Rear admiral and naval attaché to Japan, who served in World War I and World War II. After World War II, he was appointed as the deputy director of US Naval Intelligence, and post-retirement he narrated the 1958–1959 NBC television docudrama Behind Closed Doors.

Biography
From 1940-1942, Zacharias commanded the USS Salt Lake City (CA-25), a heavy cruiser that was part of the force that escorted Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle on the 1942 bombing raid over Japan. During the war, he remained at the rank of captain. He conducted radio psychological warfare against the Japanese high command.

Zacharias was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He graduated in 1912 from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Zacharias served his first cruise aboard the new battleship USS Arkansas (BB-33), which escorted U.S. President William Howard Taft to Panama to inspect the Panama Canal before water was turned into it. From 1913 to 1915, Zacharias served aboard the USS Virginia (BB-13). He was then stationed for a time on the survey ship USS Hannibal (AG-1). During World War I, he served as a line officer aboard the USS Pittsburgh (ACR-4).

His television series, Behind Closed Doors, is a unique 26-episode program set during the Cold War hosted by and occasionally starring Bruce Gordon in the role of Commander Matson. The series focuses on how the former Soviet Union stole American missile secrets and proposes steps to prevent further espionage. Behind Closed Doors is based on Zacharias files in naval intelligence and his war-time experiences. He offers comments at the conclusion of each segment. Before he appeared on Behind Closed Doors, Zacharias had also narrated a radio series entitled Secret Missions. The titles of both programs were taken from books that he had written.

Zacharias retired from the US Navy in 1946 after thirty-four years of service as the result of a heart seizure. He died at his home in West Springfield, New Hampshire, at the age of seventy-one of complications from another heart seizure. He was interred on July 3, 1961, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. His wife, the former Clara Miller (born February 27, 1897), was interred with him upon her death on November 7, 1992. At the time of her death, she was living in Falls Church, Virginia. Their son, Ellis M. Zacharias, Jr. (February 1, 1926–April 17, 2006), died in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the age of eighty. He was a photographer who moved to Tulsa in 1975. Like his father, he graduated from the Naval Academy. He subsequently served on the USS Missouri (BB-63).