Obituaries

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The face of what passed as television news in eleven time zones

Igor Leonidovich Kirillov (Russian: Игорь Леонидович Кириллов, 14 September 1932 – 30 October 2021) was a Soviet and Russian news presenter, announcer and actor. He was a prominent former news anchor for Soviet Central Television (CT USSR) and an announcer for the 9:00pm CT USSR news program Vremya.[1] People's Artist of the USSR (1988).
Early life and career

Kirillov at the unveiling ceremony of A.M Prokhorov Statue (2015).

Kirillov was born on September 14, 1932 in Moscow in the family of a serviceman, engineer-major of his father Leonid Mikhailovich Kirillov (1904-1979) and his mother's profession of librarian, Irina Veniaminovna Kirillova (1901-1995). He entered the VGIK, graduated from the first year, but due to circumstances was forced to leave. In 1955 he graduated from the Higher Theater School named after M.S.
In 1955-1957 he was an actor at the Moscow Drama and Comedy Theater (now the Taganka Theatre). In July 1957, he began working on television at the Shabolovsky television center as an assistant director of the Musical Editorial Office of the Central Television of the USSR State Television and Radio Broadcasting. He also worked as a stage director, literary critic, and film critic. Two and a half months after coming to television, he went on the air, winning the announcer competition. From 1961, he was admitted as a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[2]

In 1968, he was mainly the news presenter of news program Vremya till 1987 and served for at least 25 years on television, along with that he often gave the New Year's address to the people in the absence of the Soviet leader as in 1982; he alongside his colleague Nonna Bodrova, was the news frontman of the Soviet Union's state-owned network for all of the nation's pivotal events since the 1950s, covering the annual celebrations of state occasions, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Moscow Olympics, the death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev and his successors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, and the Chernobyl disaster. Kirillov also accompanied dignitaries, notably Soviet leaders, on their official visits to foreign countries to do reporting on location. He retired from on-screen appearances in 1990, but he still appeared with his voice-over talent on various openings, television advertisements and radio bumpers and also he read the text for Minuyta Molenchanya from 1976-1983, 1990-91 and 1996 till 2011 and posthumously retained the conclusion till today. Periodically he appeared on television to this day, and participated in some numerous programs and made public appearances up to this day.[3]