Ellis Mark Zacharias, Sr. (January 1, 1890 - June 27, 1961) was a rear admiral and naval attaché to Japan, who served in WWI and WWII. After WWII, he was appointed as the deputy director of U.S. Naval Intelligence, and post-retirement he narrated the 1958-1959 NBC television docudrama series Behind Closed Doors.
Born in Jacksonville, Florida, he was appointed as a Midshipman in 1908, graduated as an Ensign in 1912 from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and in 1920 was appointed as an assistant U.S. Naval Attaché to Japan. He returned to the U.S. following the Great Kantō earthquake in September 1923 and served for the next five years as navigator on a number of fleets. In July 1928 he was reassigned to Tokyo, serving as acting naval attaché until November.
He was then posted in charge of the Far East Division, Office of Naval Intelligence, Navy Department, Washington, D.C. for a number of years, intermittent by command assignments and attendance at the Naval War College in Rhode Island. From 1938 he served as District Intelligence Officer, Eleventh Naval District, San Diego, California. From 1940-1942, he again commanded a number of cruisers, including during the 1942 bombing raid over Japan.
After WWII, he was appointed to the U.S. Office of War Information then back to the Office of Naval Intelligence. He restructured Military intelligence when the Defense Intelligence Agency was established in 1961.
He retired from the U.S. Navy in 1946 after 34 years of service. He died in 1961 in West Springfield, New Hampshire, aged 71.
