The rules of life of Yuri Nikulin - front-line soldier, actor and clown, who was named "The Great Comedian of the World"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

He was adored by the whole huge country, and colleagues could only dream of such popularity as Yuri Nikulin's. They instantly fell in love with the heroes of his roles, and films with Nikulin's participation became cult. "Prisoner of the Caucasus and Shurik's New Adventures", "The Diamond Arm". “The Dog Watchdog and the Unusual Cross”, “Operation“Y”and Other Adventures of Shurik” - they are still watched with pleasure today. He served as a circus for half a century, traveled all over the world on tour and collected full houses in all countries. And after himself, Yuri Vladimirovich left a rich creative heritage.

Actor without education

Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin did not have a professional education. When the war ended, and he came to the exams at VGIK, the admissions committee did not find that he had acting talents. "You won't look on the screen," he was told. He tried his hand at the theater department at GITES, but the answer was about the same. Perseverance led Nikulin to the school-studio of conversational genres at the Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard.

More than 1000 anecdotes in a notebook, which he collected since childhood

While still a schoolboy, Yuri Nikulin collected about 1000 jokes. Here are just some of them later he could not decipher. The fact is that young Nikulin often wrote down not the whole anecdote, but only key phrases or words.

In the army, a funny incident occurred with Nikulin, connected with anecdotes. He argued with a friend for 10 packs of cigarettes, who would tell more jokes. The condition was that if the opponent knows an anecdote, then another should start. Jokes from Nikulin in the barracks sounded for more than 2 hours. The comrades got tired of laughing and recognized him as the winner.

Nikulin came to the cinema only at the age of 36

Nikulin's film debut took place in Feintsimmer's comedy "Girl with a Guitar", where he got a cameo role as a pyrotechnician. According to the plot, his pyrotechnician runs into a room with a suitcase, where the commission examines the participants in the competition and says: “Comrades, I'm sorry, comrades! For the festival, you know, I came up with a spectacular thing. People will see - gasp. Amateur fireworks, like fireworks. " And although the role was seemingly a passing one, Nikulin was seriously preparing for it. The audience immediately drew his attention to him, and very little time passed before Yuri Vladimirovich became a famous and popular actor.

Nikulin refused to star in the comedy "Prisoner of the Caucasus"

When the script for Gaidai's cult comedy "Prisoner of the Caucasus" was almost ready, Yuri Nikulin rejected it. He stated that many of the scenes were implausible and uninteresting, and refused to film. It took a lot of effort for director Gaidai to persuade him to stay. He allowed Nikulin and Morgunov to make some changes to the script. And Gaidai also bought a box of champagne, giving out one bottle to everyone who came up with an interesting story about Shurik.

The name of Yuri Nikulin is included in the list of the world's greatest comedians

Representatives of the Oxford "Encyclopedia of Cinema" added the name of Nikulin to the list of "Great Comedians of the World", as they considered the Soviet and Russian artist an outstanding comedian.

And in continuation of the theme, a story about two wars in the life of Yuri Nikulin and about for which the famous actor received military awards.