Yuri Senkevich, 66; Host of Russian TV Show Made Documentaries
Yuri Senkevich, 66, a documentary filmmaker and host of Russia’s longest running TV show, “Traveler’s Club,” died of heart failure Thursday in his Moscow studio.
The son of a military doctor, Senkevich was born in Mongolia and earned a medical degree from the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg. In 1962, he was assigned to the biomedical-research institute that monitored the health of cosmonauts. In 1968 he went to Antarctica to study the effects of long-term isolation.
An adventurer who loved to travel, Senkevich was a natural host for “Traveler’s Club,” which was on the air for more than 40 years and took him around the world and into the homes of millions of Russians. President Vladimir Putin said Senkevich’s show was “one of the best and best-loved television programs.”
In possibly Senkevich’s most daring trip, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a papyrus raft after an earlier attempt failed.
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