Ravil Isyanov

Biography

Ravil Isyanov (born in Voskresensk, 20 August 1962; died 29 September 2021) was a Russian actor who built most of his career in the United States and Britain, appearing in more than seventy films and television productions. He is best remembered for playing Anatoli Kirkin in NCIS.

Isyanov spent two years in the Soviet Air Force before turning to acting. He worked two seasons at a regional theatre in Khabarovsk, then trained at the MKhAT Studio-School in Moscow under Alexander Kalyagin, graduating in 1990. He also spent three summers abroad in the British American Drama Academy's "Midsummer at Oxford" programme in England. His professional start came as an ensemble member of the Theatr Clwyd in Wales.

After the Soviet Union collapsed, he chose to remain in Britain, where he kept working. In 1995 he had notable parts in Nicolas Roeg's Two Deaths and the James Bond film GoldenEye. The following year he had a supporting role in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. In 1998 he moved to Los Angeles, where he lived and worked until his death at 59, after a seventeen-month battle with cancer.

Key films

• GoldenEye (1995)
• The Good German (2006)
• K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
• The Jackal (1997)
• Arachnid (2001)
• Defiance (2008)