Trivia

Igor Kirillov was a Soviet and Russian news presenter, announcer and actor.

After graduation, he worked at the Moscow Drama and Comedy Theatre.

He was a news anchor for Soviet Central Television (CT USSR) and announcer for the CT USSR news program Vremya for 30 years.

In 1957, he won an audition to become a newsreader for Soviet Central Television. For 30 years he co-anchored the network's prime time news broadcast Vremya, with Nonna Bodrova and Anna Shatilova as co-anchors during his tenure.

During his tenure, Kirillov was the anchor for all of the Soviet Union's pivotal events, covering the annual celebrations of state occasions, the death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev and his successors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, and as well as Yuri Gagarin's orbit of the earth in 1961, the Soviet government's decision to invade Afghanistan in 1979, and the Moscow Olympics the following year. Kirillov also accompanied Soviet leaders on their official visits to foreign countries to report on location.

Igor Kirillov made cameo appearances in some Russian films, and in Sting's 1985 hit "Russians", and was host of the Russian TV pop music show and the annual "Song of the Year".

He was known for his slow delivery, which he told an interviewer was a Russian preference, and also said was for the benefit of Soviet citizens with native languages other than Russian.

He was the last surviving news announcer to have been made a People's Artist of the USSR.

He planned to become a director, but was admitted to the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography to study acting. He left after one year and graduated from the Mikhail Shchepkin Higher Theatre School.

He retired in 1996, but he occasionally appeared as an emcee for some concerts and the annual Red Square Victory Day parade.