Tigran Keosayan dies at 59
The director died at 59 after prolonged health problems and a December hospitalization.
Today, actor, director, and television host Tigran Keosayan has died. He was one of the most significant figures in contemporary Russian television. He was 59.
«Tonight Tigran went to the Creator. Thank you to everyone who prayed», — wrote his wife Margarita Simonyan on her Telegram channel.
The performer’s health faltered in January 2008. He was hospitalized in a pre-infarction condition. The director underwent treatment at the Nauchniy tsentr serdechno-sosudistoy khirurgii imeni Bakuleva (Bakulev National Medical Research Center of Cardiovascular Surgery, “Bakulev Center”). Keosayan had a stent placed in an artery to restore normal blood flow.
But in 2010 the situation repeated: the television host again experienced similar symptoms and was back in hospital. Doctors diagnosed an acute myocardial infarction. Keosayan then underwent a repeat stenting procedure to improve circulation and reduce the risks of further heart problems.
In December 2024 the television host was again within hospital walls, but this time in an extremely serious condition: he suffered clinical death and fell into a coma, from which he did not manage to emerge. The cause of the health problems that arose remains unknown to this day.
Among possible factors, prior heart attacks are mentioned, as well as hypothetical external influences. Radio host Nikita Nebylitsky reported this on his Telegram channel. He suggests that Keosayan fell into a coma not as a result of medical intervention (a medically induced coma), but for natural reasons.
Keosayan’s second wife was Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT and Rossiya Segodnya.
Margarita Simonyan did not begin commenting on her husband’s condition until 9 January. On her Telegram channel the journalist confirmed that Keosayan had long-standing health problems.
«I did not want to say anything until the last moment, but since reporters have already begun calling, I will write it myself. My husband, Tigran Keosayan, survived clinical death and is in a coma. He has, as many know, a very sick heart that has been that way for a very long time. I don’t know how to record ‘little circles’ in intensive care or make selfies of my sobbing, so please forgive me for not posting on social media», — Simonyan commented.
His family took the worsening health problems very hard. His mother, Laura Gevorkyan, came to her son’s home. Her anguish was compounded by the fact that two years earlier she had lost her elder son, and with her last strength she hoped that the Lord would show mercy to her younger one.
Keosayan was born in 1966 into the family of renowned Soviet director Edmond Keosayan (who shot the trilogy about the “Elusive Avengers”). The younger son, Tigran, followed in his footsteps. In 1983 he finished school and began working at Mosfilm (Mosfilm Studios). He enrolled in the directing faculty at Vserossiyskiy gosudarstvenny institut kinematografii imeni S.A. Gerasimova (Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, VGIK), from which he left to serve in the army.
His first film, “Kat’ka and Shiz” (18+), Tigran shot in 1992. From 1993 he and Fyodor Bondarchuk filmed music videos for well-known musicians, including Irina Allegrova.
He completed the directing faculty in 1998, making the comedy “Poor Sasha” (0+) with Vera Glagoleva and Aleksandr Zbruev.
The director had numerous successful pictures: “Hare over the Abyss” (18+), “Yalta-45” (18+), “Three Comrades” (18+), “Crimean Bridge. Made with Love!” (18+).
However, Keosayan did not stop there and decided to try himself as a television host. Beginning in 2007 he presented the talk show “Evening with Tigran Keosayan” on REN TV (REN TV). In 2009–2010, on Rossiya — part of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) — he co-hosted with Alena Khmelnitskaya the program “You and I” about celebrities’ family secrets. In 2010 he hosted “Hot Evening with Tigran Keosayan”.
Since 2016 Tigran hosted the evening satirical show on NTV (NTV Television Company) “International Pilorama”. For his participation in it, the European Union (EU) as well as individual countries — Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada — imposed sanctions on Tigran Keosayan in 2022.
In 2024 Tigran Keosayan received the title of Honored Art Worker of the Russian Federation for his contribution to cultural development.
The host was married twice. His first wife was actress Alena Khmelnitskaya. The former spouses lived in marriage from 1993 to 2014. They have two daughters, Alexandra and Ksenia.
Keosayan and Alena Khmelnitskaya attend the Mirage premiere at Pushkinsky Cinema (Moscow), 20 August 2008.
However, Tigran did not seek to remain a bachelor and for many years tried to formalize a marriage with Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT (formerly Russia Today) and MIA Rossiya Segodnya (International Information Agency Rossiya Segodnya, MIA). The couple have been together for more than 12 years, but only held an official wedding in 2022. The spouses have three children: daughters Maryana and Maro, and a son, Bagrat.
Simonyan admitted that for a long time she did not agree to marry her beloved, because she had never wanted to wed. Keosayan periodically proposed to his future wife and gave her rings. The RT editor-in-chief said that marriage entails an enormous amount of unnecessary paperwork.
