http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8396468.stm
Russian actor Vyacheslav Tikhonov, who immortalised a fictional wartime spy called Stirlitz in a 1973 Soviet TV series, has died in Moscow at 81.
Tikhonov, more familiar to Western audiences as Prince Andrei in an epic Soviet adaptation of War And Peace in the 1960s, had suffered a heart attack.
As Stirlitz, he was as familiar to Soviets as James Bond in the West.
Jokes about his encounters with the Gestapo chief Mueller in Nazi Berlin remain a national treasure in Russia.
Wikipedia om Stirlitz och Stirlitz skämt.
/Marcus