His father, Leonid Mikhailovich Kirillov (1904–1979), was an engineer, and his mother, Revekka Veniaminovna Kirillova (1902–1995), was a librarian.

[6] During his tenure, Kirillov was the anchor for all of the Soviet Union's pivotal events, covering the annual celebrations of state occasions, the death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev and his successors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, and as well as Yuri Gagarin's orbit of the earth in 1961, the Soviet government's decision to invade Afghanistan in 1979, and the Moscow Olympics the following year.

Kirillov also accompanied Soviet leaders on their official visits to foreign countries to report on location.

He retired in 1996, but he occasionally appeared as an emcee for some concerts and the annual Red Square Victory Day parade.

[2] Kirillov died on 29 October 2021, at the age of 89,[3][7] the last surviving news announcer to have been made a People's Artist of the USSR.