Russian theater and film actor Alexei Yanin died at the age of 40 after a long battle with health complications. He had been in the intensive care unit of the Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine since early September.
“Lesha passed away today… This pain has no limits… Andryusha and I will love you forever,” said the artist’s wife Daria Yanina on social networks.
The Russian Academic Youth Theater (RAMT), where Yanin began his professional journey at a very young age, shared its condolences with his family.
“Our theater actor Alexei Yanin has faced the consequences of a major stroke for several years; he had just turned 40,” a Theater representative noted.
Details about the farewell time and location will be announced later.
Yanina’s career
Yanin applied to several theater schools, with the Moscow Art Theater as a standout option he did not pursue. His list included VGIK, GITIS, and other prominent institutions. He ultimately chose the Shchepkin School, where he studied and trained as a performer.
After graduating from Shchepkin in 2004, he joined RAMT and took on a range of stage roles. On stage he portrayed Carrasco in Don Quixote, the prince in Cinderella, and Peter in The Possessed.
He once reflected on his move to RAMT, saying that the environment suited him well even when offered opportunities elsewhere. He believed acting was about inhabiting the character from start to finish and understanding its inner purpose, rather than labeling roles as positive or negative.
Beyond the stage, Yanin appeared in numerous Russian films and television series. His body of work exceeded thirty credits, including projects such as In Front of the Horse, Furtseva, The Legend of Catherine, Mothers and Daughters, All Men Are Theirs, and I Will Not Return, among others.
Health challenges emerged several years into his career, when a stroke affected his speech and memory. He required a craniotomy and faced significant recovery. He was cared for by his mother Olga and his stepfather Nikolai, while his wife and child maintained their life in Moscow and offered financial and practical support as needed.
phone scammers
On the following day, Daria Yanina alerted authorities after receiving a call from individuals posing as employees of the same Emergency Medicine Research Institute. They claimed that Sklifosovsky had released a notice about Alexei’s death and suggested that funeral arrangements were underway. The caller emphasized that no funeral service had been offered yet, attempting to imply involvement by a funeral director.
Yanina described how the scammers continued to press the claim of a death for several hours, providing a supposed medical card number and stating that the body would be moved to the morgue later in the day. She checked the caller’s number and found it mislabeled in a contact app as a morgue, which raised further concerns. The day remained one of shock until evening when it was clarified that the information about Alexei’s death had been fabricated. A formal police report was filed.
Official statements noted that the information circulating in the morning appeared to come from representatives of a trusted institute, but the reports were later identified as a mistake. Investigators proceeded to determine who was disseminating the false information and to prevent further incidents along these lines.