Alex Carson
From the 1970s to the 1980s, Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff rise to hosting the French science fiction series Temps X. After the series in 1987, the brothers become obsessed with plastic surgery and do some semi-successful attempts at becoming scientists. Recently, both twins died within a week of each other after having COVID-19. Join Facts Verse as we explore the scary true story of the Bogdanoff twins.
Who was Bogdanoff Twins?
Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff are born to the nobility. Though the family of her mother shuns her 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 translates for German forces occupying the region. She claims 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 is a performer in Paris, and together they come to see him perform when they’re five years old. The twins look to their grandfather when they make their entrance into the French show business after coming of age.
Both of the Bogdanoff twins followed in their grandfather’s footsteps by becoming entertainers. For them, fame comes from their good looks and charm to become the presenters of the French 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.
Bogdanoff Twins Education
Before striking it big with their joint gig hosting Temps X, the twins start studying mathematics at school in Paris. Following their gig, the twins will continue to pursue their education over the course of the 1990s. Despite not being the best and failing numerous times, they manage to secure PhDs around the turn of the millennium. After Temps X, the twins think that they can be popular in scientific series by becoming legitimate theoretical physicists.
Sadly, the Bogdanoff twins didn’t turn out to be outstanding scientists in the eyes of their academic peers. Their time on Temps X didn’t actually lend them very much legitimate scientific credibility. Coming to an end of the 1970s, Temps X is just cheesy like other science fiction 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 will appear on a very fake-looking set that is to be a spaceship. Dressing up as astronauts, the brothers will then introduce episodes of various other science fiction series from around the world. Together with some of the series as rewritten, including Star Trek and The Twilight Zone.
The presence of the Bogdanoff twins makes the foreign material easier to digest for the French television audience. The brothers become heartthrobs thanks to their striking, angular features. Although the use of plastic surgery in life is so extensive, it’s obvious to anyone looking at their faces. They are both in denial that they have ever gone under the knife. The twins try to convince the public that they’ve never gone surgery, and keep denying it until their recent deaths.
Bogdanoff Twins Career
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, they didn’t take another hosting gig until 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, they attain PhDs, though they receive the lowest passing grade possible. Starting the new millennium, they begin publishing scientific papers in peer review journals resulting in controversy for their dodgy writing. They go through peer review but are later, deemed nonsensical.
With their appearances and their academic controversies, the brothers become laughing stocks over the course of the new millennium. Sadly, this reputation follows the famous twins to their deathbeds when they recently died from COVID-19 after the vaccination.
Although the Bogdanoff twins came back to television in the new millennium by 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.
Bogdanoff Twins in French Television
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 slip through the seemingly low standards of peer-reviewing, later call 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 are publishing ranges from saying that the publication is a mistake and that the papers were nonsense to doubling down on their peer approval.
Why Bogdanoff Twins attempt to sue a French Publication?
In 2004, the Bogdanoff twins attempt to sue a French publication that they believe, defame them in an article that is publish 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 comes out the window, and the brothers need 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 aren’t awarded the full sum that they are after in this lawsuit, but the publication, named Marianne, is found to be guilty of defamation.
In 2005, the controversial twins grant a seemingly perfect opportunity when they step up to become professors at a private university the name of Megatrend University, located in Belgrade, Serbia. The twins have the opportunity to become the directors of the Megatrend Laboratory of Cosmology. However, the whole operation came crashing down when it 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 Marriage Life
Igor Bogdanoff marries twice throughout his life and has 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 is 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?
