Walter Herman Wager[1] (September 4, 1924 – July 11, 2004)[1] was an American crime and espionage-thriller novelist and former editor-in-chief of Playbill magazine.

Walter Wager was born in The Bronx, New York City,[1] the son of a doctor and a nurse who had emigrated from the Russian Empire.

[1] He spent a year in Israel as an aviation-law consultant for the Israeli Department of Civil Aviation,[3] helping to negotiate a treaty on air space[2] and working out of Lydda Airport in Tel Aviv.

[2] Shortly afterward, Wager segued into writing and producing radio and television documentaries[3] for CBS and NBC,[1] and the United States Information Agency,[4] while also beginning a side career as a freelance writer for magazines including Playbill and Show.

That same year, his spy novel Telefon (Macmillan, 1975) was adapted as the same-name movie starring Charles Bronson and Lee Remick.

Additionally, Wager wrote a number of original novels in the 1960s under the pseudonym "John Tiger" that were based on the TV series I Spy and Mission: Impossible.