The Master of Deception

By Joel Stein Sunday, Dec. 15, 2002
    • You know you shouldn't brag about the bad stuff you did as a kid: shoplifting, doing drugs, getting chased by the police. But it's so hard not to. That's the problem Frank W. Abagnale Jr., 54, is facing. He did something very, very wrong — he stole $2.5 million — but he did it so coolly, it's hard not to be a little proud. "As time went by, I didn't really care to have a movie made about my life," he says while sitting on the set of the film. "I was married, and I had children. What I did was immoral and illegal. I don't really want to promote that time of my life."

    When he was 28, he wrote a book about his exploits and shortly thereafter sold the movie rights. Though he still speaks excitedly about the ingenuity he showed as a teenage con man, he talks about his criminal self in the third person ("He had to become creative to find a way to make a living, and he got caught up in that," he says about himself). Since serving four years in prison, Abagnale has worked pro bono for the FBI about 50 days a year, refusing to let the government even reimburse his travel expenses. "It's my very small way of paying back what I believe is a personal debt," he says. His website, where you can contact him to hire him for a $15,000 lecture fee, states that he is ashamed of his past.

    He told DreamWorks he didn't want to do much publicity for the film, but journalists have little trouble getting him to talk. Soft-spoken and white-haired, Abagnale lives with his wife of 26 years in Tulsa, Okla., where he has made millions as a consultant who teaches corporations how to avoid getting bilked by guys like the one he used to be. His old self comes out in his lectures, where he is a slick but likable showman. "It's only 90 minutes," says Tom Hanks, who went to one to research the role of the FBI agent who nabbed Abagnale. "But it's the best one-man show you'll possibly ever see." In the movie, Abagnale's character is just as entertaining. "He did steal 2 1/2 million bucks," Hanks says. "And yet you're constantly rooting for him." How could he not brag?