From the 1970s to the 1980s, Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff rose to prominence
hosting the French science fiction series Temps X. After the series ended in 1987,
the brothers became obsessed with plastic surgery and made some semi-successful attempts at becoming
legitimate scientists. Recently, both twins died within a week of each other after being diagnosed
with COVID-19. Join Facts Verse as we explore the scary true story of the Bogdanoff twins.
Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff were born from nobility, though their mother was shunned
from her family after engaging in an affair with an African-American musician. They were born in
France on August 29, 1949. During the twins' early days, their mother allegedly translated for German
forces occupying the region, though she also claimed to have been sheltering Jewish refugees.
Despite the estrangement from the noble side of her family,
the Bogdanoff twins’ mother remained close with their grandfather. Their grandfather
was a popular performer in Paris, and their mother took them to see him perform when
they were only five years old. The twins grew to be largely inspired by their grandfather
when they made their own entrance into French show business after coming of age.
Both of the Bogdanoff twins followed in their grandfather’s footsteps by becoming entertainers.
For Igor and Grichka, fame came by using their innate good looks and charm
to become the presenters of the French science fiction series
Temps X. In addition to acting as hosts of the program, the brothers also acted as writers.
The show aired on France’s biggest television channel and became a quick success after its
launch in 1979. The show would go on to last until 1987. Over this extensive time period,
the Bogdanoff twins would become famous thanks to their gig on the series.
Before striking it big with their joint gig hosting Temps X, the Bogdanoff twins
had begun studying mathematics at an institute in
Paris. Following their Temps X gig, the twins would continue to pursue their education over
the course of the 1990s. Despite not being the best students and failing numerous times,
the brothers eventually managed to secure PhDs around the turn of the millennium. After the
end of their tenure on Temps X, the twins felt that they could capitalize on the popularity of
the scientific series by becoming the legitimate theoretical physicists that they’d always wanted.
Sadly, the Bogdanoff twins didn't turn out to be outstanding scientists in the eyes of their
academic peers, and their time on Temps X didn’t actually lend them very much legitimate scientific
credibility. Coming on the air during the end of the 1970s, Temps X was just as cheesy as any
other science fiction television series of the time. The show was a strange way for producers
to market foreign science fiction material to its French demographic. As hosts, the Bogdanoff twins
would appear on a very fake-looking set that was meant to be a spaceship. Dressed up as astronauts,
the brothers would then introduce episodes of various other science fiction series from around
the world, with some of the series being reworked, including Star Trek and The Twilight Zone.
The presence of the Bogdanoff twins made the foreign material easier to digest for the
French television audience, and the brothers became heartthrobs thanks to their striking,
angular features. Sadly, the twins would destroy their natural looks after Temps X came to an end
by developing an unhealthy addiction to plastic surgery. Although the brothers’ use of plastic
surgery later on in life was so extensive that it was obvious to anyone looking at their faces, they
both denied that they’d ever gone under the knife. The Bogdanoff twins earnestly tried to convince
the public that they’d never gotten surgery, and kept up the lie until their recent deaths.
Besides Star Trek and The Twilight Zone, Temps X also incorporated footage of Battlestar Galactica
and Doctor Who. After the show’s end in 1987, the brothers didn’t take on another notable
hosting gig until being given a new show, Rayons X, in 2002. In 2004, the brothers
hosted a 90-minute special on the subject of cosmology that ran on French television.
Between hosting Temps X and Rayons X, the brothers had attained PhDs, though they had both received
the lowest passing grade possible. Starting in the new millennium, the brothers began publishing
scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals that caused quite a bit of controversy for
their decidedly dodgy writing. They went through peer review but were later deemed nonsensical.
With their increasingly grotesque appearances and their academic controversies, the Bogdanoff
twins slowly became known as laughing stocks over the course of the new millennium. Sadly,
this reputation followed the famous twins to their deathbeds when they recently died from
COVID-19 after opting out of vaccination. If you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure to
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Although the Bogdanoff twins came back to television in the new millennium hosting
the new show Rayons X, they became better known in their later lives for their numerous controversies
and increasingly strange appearances. Though both brothers denied that they had
ever gotten plastic surgery up until their recent untimely deaths from COVID-19, it
was obvious that the twins had each been under the knife numerous times.
Their appearance became drastically altered over the later decades of their lives.
With their increasingly bizarre appearances and their legacy on campy French television,
the Bogdanoff twins certainly didn’t seem poised to become legitimate theoretical physicists.
However, that’s exactly what they intended to do with their PhDs!
The brothers began publishing papers in the early 2000s. Though numerous of these papers
slipped through the seemingly low standards of peer-reviewing, they were later called out by many
of the twins' more legitimate contemporaries as being complete and utter nonsense.
Some people speculated that the Bogdanoff twins had created faulty scientific papers
on purpose in order to expose the hypocrisy of peer-reviewed journals.
If this was the case, the brothers certainly did a very good job! In the wake of the controversies
stemming from the publication of the brothers’ various scientific papers, the reaction from
those in charge of the journals that they were published in ranged from saying that the
publication was a mistake and that the papers were nonsense to doubling down on their peer approval.
In 2004, the Bogdanoff twins attempted to sue a French publication that they
believed had defamed them in an article that had been published commenting on their unlikely
celebrity after years of being in the industry. The brothers apparently didn’t like some of the
content that the article contained, though they ended up destroying their own case when
they forgot to show up to court one morning for a scheduled appearance. The case immediately went
out the window, and the brothers were forced to pay the court fees of the defending party.
Although this lawsuit failed, the brothers successfully sued another publication in 2014 for
similar reasons. The brothers weren’t awarded the full sum that they were after in this lawsuit, but
the publication, named Marianne, was found to be guilty of defamation.
In 2005, the controversial twins were granted a seemingly perfect opportunity
when they were invited to become professors at a private university by the name of Megatrend
University, located in Belgrade, Serbia. The twins were given the opportunity to become the directors
of the Megatrend Laboratory of Cosmology. However, the whole operation came crashing
down when it was revealed that the university’s founder had been lying about his education.
The Bogdanoff twins had been hoping that taking the opportunity to lend their celebrity to the
fledgling Megatrend University would help them develop a reputation as legitimate figures in
the academic field. However, it ended up doing the opposite. In fact, their presence arguably
detracted more from Megatrend University’s reputation than it did boost theirs. Still,
just like the twins could never admit that they underwent plastic surgery,
they could never admit the possibility that they weren’t talented theoretical physicists.
Igor Bogdanoff was married twice throughout his life and had six children. Four of these
children Igor had with his first wife, while the two others he had with his second. Meanwhile, it
appears that brother Grichka’s personal life has been kept much more private than his twin’s. If
Grichka has ever been married, it hasn’t been made public. Prior to the finalization of Igor’s
divorce from his second wife in 2018, he was embroiled in a scandal with a young lover.
In 2017, Igor received some more controversy for a relationship that he had supposedly
started up with a 23-year-old biology student named Julie Jardon.
Igor was in his late 60s at the time, though the age gap wasn't the thing
that ended up making the relationship controversial. Instead, the controversy
came when Igor was arrested for breaking into the girl's apartment after they'd broken up.
Recently, both of the Bogdanoff twins tragically passed away within days of
each other. The brothers were hospitalized with COVID-19 on the same day. On December 28,
Grichka died from complications related to the virus. At the time of Grichka’s death,
his brother was comatose. Igor was never made aware of his brother’s death before the
time of his own death six days later. Though Igor’s official cause of death has yet to be
confirmed, it was most likely COVID-19. At the time of the twins’ death, they were 72 years old.
Although Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff became heartthrobs thanks to their nearly decade-long
tenure hosting the French science fiction series Temps X, they became better known as academic
laughing stocks later on in life. Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that the Bogdanoff
twins rose to prominence hosting a French science fiction series that repurposed footage from shows
like Doctor Who and The Twilight Zone, and did you know that they denied ever getting plastic
surgery? As always, like this video to show your support, and subscribe and hit the notification
bell if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their
way!