Grichka Bogdanoff dies aged 72 from Covid-19

Grichka Bogdanoff, a TV star of the 80s and 90s, died Tuesday in Paris, at the age of 72 from Covid-19, against which he was not vaccinated. He left behind his twin brother and co-TV personality, Igor.

Grichka Bogdanoff, one of the star twins of the 1980s, on the Croisette during the 71st at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2018. AFP - YANN COATSALIOU

"Surrounded by the love of his family and friends, Grichka Bogdanoff died peacefully (...) to join his stars," his family wrote in a statement, without mentioning the causes of death.

"I do not think we should take Grichka as a banner for or against vaccination," said his lawyer, Me Edouard de Lamaze, on BFM-TV earlier on Tuesday evening, confirming press reports that his client, not vaccinated, was hospitalized in intensive care in Paris.

Le Monde later revealed that Grichka had died of Covid and that his twin brother Igor had been hospitalized for the same reason.

TV science

Made famous in the 1980s by their science fiction show Temps X on TF1, where they evolved in a spaceship setting with futuristic suits, Igor and Grichka had become the object of mockery for their deeply transformed faces that they themselves had qualified as "extraterrestrial".

In 2002, the Bogdanoffs launched a weekly TV show Rayons X (X Rays) on French public channel France 2. In August 2004, they also presented a 90-minute special cosmology program.

Over the years, their scientific works caused considerable controversy and had earned them the wrath of a part of the scientific community which criticised the "low value" of their work.   

Much of the criticism was on the back of what became known as the 'The Bogdanoff Affair', where a series of papers penned by the brothers about what they believed happened during the Big Bang were published in reputable peer-reviewed scientific journals, despite a report later finding that their theses held no scientific value.

At the time of his death, the twins had been working on a return to French TV screens, but plans for a new science-based show on TV broadcaster Canal+ had been put on indefinite hold.