‘Blonde’ Actor Ravil Isyanov Dies at 59

Russian-born actor Ravil Isyanov has died of cancer aged 59, The List reports. Perhaps best-known for his role as mobster Anatoli Kirkin in NCIS: Los Angeles, his final screen credit will be as director Billy Wilder in the upcoming fictional biopic, Blonde.

Wilder’s first appearance in Joyce Carol Oates’ Blonde is in a passage describing the Dazzledent toothpaste ad starring ‘The Girl’ (MM) from The Seven Year Itch. By the time of their second, stormier collaboration on Some Like It Hot, Billy is referred to not as ‘Mr. Wilder’ but simply ‘W.’

Interestingly, Ravil played a Charlie Chaplin lookalike in ‘A Dozen Red Roses,’ a 2009 episode of TV’s The Mentalist, alongside a Marilyn impersonator (Nicholle Tom.)