Biography of Yuri Nikulin: childhood, youth, personal life, circus

Biography of Yuri Nikulin

Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin is a world-class actor and a man with an amazing destiny. The biography of Yuri Nikulin is closely intertwined with the history of the country, its great and tragic episodes.

Millions of viewers fell in love with the characters in his roles for their humanity and recognition, and for all his mega-popularity, he remained a rather modest person, pleasant to talk to.

We can confidently say that Yuri Nikulin is a man of a happy acting destiny. The films in which the artist starred were widely quoted, and his filmography includes about fifty feature films. But the main business of Yuri Vladimirovich’s life was the circus, where he spent several decades in the arena.

Childhood and youth of Yuri Nikulin

Yuri was born into a creative family - his mother Lidia Ivanovna, served in the theater of the city of Demidov, where Vladimir Andreevich Nikulin entered after demobilization from the Red Army and completing courses in Political Education. He wrote reprises, acted, and worked for two local newspapers. And he even coached the local community football team.

Vladimir Andreevich organized the Terevyum theater, which meant “theater of revolutionary humor”, Lidia Ivanovna took part in the productions. The young people got married, and on December 18, 1921, a son was born into the Nikulin family. They named him Yura.

Yura was four years old when the family moved to Moscow. My father was creative - he worked for famous newspapers, wrote for theaters and the circus. The mother devoted herself to the family. The parents raised their son in a creative atmosphere, attending theater productions and circus performances. Even as a child, Yura fell in love with the circus and dreamed of becoming a clown.

The boy went to a good school, where his father led a drama club. Of course, Yuri took an active part in productions, even played young Peshkov in a play based on M. Gorky’s “Childhood”. The boy had selective memory: he did not remember formulas and rules well, but could spend hours coming up with interesting stories. Most of all, he liked to amuse those around him by telling about funny incidents, funny anecdotes, and jokes.

After graduating from elementary school, it was decided that Yuri would transfer to a regular educational institution. He already understood that he did not want to be a scientist, but dreamed of connecting his fate with the theater or circus.

It is noteworthy that the father, being a creative and talented person, supported his son, developed in him a craving for self-expression, and protected him after his boyish pranks.

Yuri entered the nearest school, to his great joy, because there he could run with the neighboring boys, climbing over the fence.

Yuri Nikulin during the war

After graduating from school, Yuri was drafted into the army. In 1939, it was normal and even romantic to serve and return, but the plans were broken by a real bloody and terrible war. Yuri Nikulin's service dragged on for seven long years.

Despite the hardships of military service, youth and perky character took their toll. Yuri supported his colleagues with funny jokes, and once won a valuable prize in an argument - ten packs of cigarettes, after telling jokes until the morning and not repeating a single one! In war photographs, young Yuri Nikulin smiles, despite the hardships of what is happening around him.

Yuri Vladimirovich began serving as a private in the anti-aircraft artillery troops located in the Sestroretsk region and guarding Leningrad. There he fought during the Finnish War, and the Great Patriotic War found him there. In 1943, Yuri was seriously wounded. After treatment in the hospital, he returned to the front and went through another long journey as a warrior. Yuri Vladimirovich was demobilized only in 1946 with the rank of senior sergeant.

For military services, Yuri Nikulin was awarded the medals “For the Defense of Leningrad”, “For Courage” and “For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War”.

He remembered the horrors of war and the siege of Leningrad for the rest of his life. In war films, he embodied the image of a Soviet soldier and the audience believed with all their hearts the front-line artist.

Russo-Finnish War

Upon graduation from the educational institution, in 1939, he received a summons to the military registration and enlistment office. Like many other boys of that time and age, he joined the army almost in a state of euphoria. Young Red Army soldiers were ordered to serve in Leningrad. Despite the enthusiastic feelings, the ardor of the young fighters very quickly cooled. Indeed, the situation on the border with Finland was very difficult, and the city itself was under martial law.

This is how he began his combat career in the Russian-Finnish war. A year later he turned 18, and he even drank his first combat hundred grams. It wasn't that he hadn't tried alcohol before, he just didn't like it. Therefore, he often exchanged his 100 g for a piece of lard.

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The battery command was in no hurry to send young and uncouth boys to certain death, so the fighting ended calmly for them. But still, one incident happened to Nikulin that forever left a mark on his life.

The fact is that once the soldiers had to pull a telephone cable, and from constantly dragging a heavy coil they became very tired. During this operation, Nikulin, despite the frost in the yard, even fell asleep, which is why he almost froze his legs. They were saved, but this affected their health, and now their legs were freezing even with a slight drop in temperature.

Creativity of Yuri Nikulin

After demobilization, Yuri Vladimirovich dreamed of starting an acting career. To begin with, he decided to enter a theater university, but he was not accepted. Famous chairmen of the selection committees explained to the young man that he was not suitable according to his external appearance and had no talent. Nikulin almost despaired, but then recruitment began for the clownery studio at the Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard.

His decision was warmly supported by his father, explaining that in the circus an actor is less dependent on the director than in theater and cinema. The father himself staged the first number for his son, which Yuri performed in October 1948 together with Boris Romanov.

After some time, they were already touring the country together with the then popular clown Pencil.

Now that Yuri Nikulin had become an actor with unique abilities, they were ready to cast him in films.

Director Alexander Faintzimmer invited Yuri to play the role of an unlucky pyrotechnician in the film “Girl with a Guitar.” The actor’s debut turned out to be successful, Nikulin was noticed and began to be invited to other films, mainly comedies.

Circus

The circus became for Yuri Nikulin the love and work of his life. Since 1949, he began to appear in the arena as a clown. First he acted as an assistant to Mikhail Rumyantsev, the clown Pencil, and then paired with acrobat Mikhail Shuidin.

Mikhail Ivanovich Shuidin was also a war veteran, an order bearer; he and Yuri Vladimirovich surprisingly coincided in their attitude to life and clownery - both were modest, charming, sensitive to life.

In this couple, Nikulin had the image of a simple-minded romantic, which the actor actually was in life. This image became the hallmark of the artist himself, and then of the circus “On Tsvetnoy”: a clown in a white shirt, tie, stylish trousers and big smart boots.

The funniest numbers of a couple of clowns - “Log”, “TV”, “Horses” - have become classics of clownery, and now the descendants of M.I. Shuidin continue to use them in their programs.

The duet gained enormous popularity and love from the audience; people came to the circus “to see Nikulin.” Yuri Vladimirovich entered the arena until 1981.

Filmography

Despite his late debut, at 36 years old, Yuri Nikulin immediately became in demand among directors. In 1959, Yu. Chulyukin invited him to the comedy “The Unyielding”. A year later, Yuri Vladimirovich starred in two films. And a year later at six! Each of the films became extremely popular with viewers and was analyzed by people for quotes.

It was significant for Yuri Nikulin to meet Leonid Gaidai. The wise director made up the trio “Coward, Dunce and Experienced” from three talented comedians, which went down in the history of cinema. When “Dog Barbos and the Unusual Cross” was filmed, the actors were given extraordinary freedom in self-expression, they filmed with virtually no rehearsals, and came up with jokes and grimaces. This tradition has spread to other works with L. Gaidai:

"Moonshiners"
"Soul mates"
"Operation Y and other adventures of Shurik"
"Prisoner of the Caucasus or Shurik's new adventures"
"The Diamond Arm"
"12 chairs".

Now he was invited to the theater stage. But Yuri Vladimirovich refused, explaining his action by saying that he did not want to “start late.”

Nikulin did not want to become an actor of one role, no matter how good his comedic roles were. In 1962, he was invited by L. Kulidzhanov to play the dramatic role of Kuzma Iordanov in the film “When the Trees Were Big.”

Yuri Vladimirovich had a special regard for films about the war. He starred in the role of military journalist Lopatin in A. German’s film “Twenty Days Without War.” The leaders of Goskino did not see Nikulin in this role, but the author, Konstantin Simonov, intervened, who saw only a front-line actor in the role of Lopatin.

Another director who assembled an ensemble of former front-line soldiers for the filming of his film was S. Bondarchuk. In 1975, the film “They Fought for the Motherland” was released. Yuri Nikulin played the role of a soldier named Nekrasov. The audience saw another Nikulin the soldier, who went through the war and retained a difficult memory of it.

Among the roles of Yuri Vladimirovich there is one more, sad and subtle, the role of a grandfather in the film “Scarecrow”. The film became a discovery of Soviet cinema, controversial, unusual, frank. Director Rolan Bykov chose the actors very harmoniously, and Yuri Vladimirovich simply stunned the audience in this role, he turned out to be so different from all his previous heroes.

In total, Yuri Nikulin’s filmography, as Wikipedia says, includes 46 feature films, 16 documentaries, participation in various projects: television programs, voicing cartoon characters.

In the nineties, friends of Yu.V. Nikulin, Arkady Arkanov and Grigory Gorin came up with the TV show “White Parrot”, named after the talking parrot in a cage, which became the hallmark of the joke-lovers club. Yuri Vladimirovich became the honorary chairman and leader of the club.

Friends-actors gathered at the TV club, joked, told funny stories and anecdotes, but Nikulin always turned out to be smarter and funnier than everyone else.

Bibliography

Yuri Vladimirovich had something to talk about. Fate brought him together with directors, artists, ordinary people and celebrities. And on top of that, he was a great teller of stories and anecdotes.

In 1969, in collaboration with another famous clown O. Popov and R. Slavsky, Yuri Nikulin published the book “The Art of Clownery.”

In 1976, in his autobiographical work “Almost Seriously,” Yu. Nikulin recalls his youth, the terrible war and death of friends, the siege of Leningrad, fellow soldiers and Victory.

The book has been reprinted several times

Yuri Vladimirovich was a famous joke teller and funny man. He published the book “10 Trolley Buses of Clowns” in 1993 and compiled a collection of jokes, which was published in 1997 and is also being republished.

Discography

Yuri Vladimirovich himself did not consider himself a singer. Without having outstanding vocal abilities, he managed to perform songs, with humor or sadness, from the heart. People understood and accepted them, and these songs became very popular among the people.

He took part in the very popular program “Ships Came into Our Harbor,” in which people’s favorite songs were sung and the artist gladly performed ditties and songs from films in it.

Songs of Yuri Nikulin:

Comrade circus.
Old clown.
If I were a sultan.
Take care of the clowns.
My old circus.
An extraordinary hotel.
Night Tsvetnoy Boulevard.
Train Vorkuta-Leningrad.
Wait, locomotive.
Song about hares.
Heater.
Comrade inspector.
Transvaal, Transvaal, my country.
New recruits.
Song by Ivan Panov (Knife).
Goldfinch.
Lullaby.

Personal life of Yuri Nikulin

Yuri met the girl Tatyana, who became his wife, in 1949 while working with the clown Karandash. Tom needed a funny horse for his act and a girl, a student at the Timiryazev Academy who was involved in equestrian sports, accompanied the horses to the circus. During one of the rehearsals, Yuri fell under the hooves of horses, he was hospitalized, and the girl began to visit him in the hospital. Since then they have been together. Almost fifty years.

At first, the bride's parents were discouraged by their daughter's choice when she announced that she was marrying a clown. Then for many years they lived together as one big happy family.

Tatyana even became interested in the circus, following her husband, going to the arena and participating in reprises. She almost never parted with her husband, went on tour with him, to filming.

In 1956, Yuri and Tatyana had a son. The boy was named Maxim.

Tatyana Nikolaevna devoted her life to her family: her husband and son. She tried to protect Yuri Vladimirovich from any everyday problems. When his son was born, the actor worked a lot, went on creative business trips, and was rarely at home. Often his wife accompanied him, and the boy was left with his grandmother - a common story in acting families. But the parents had to dramatically change their work schedule after one day, after a long absence, their son called Yuri uncle.

The Nikulins tried to spend all weekends together, went on vacation to the south, and of course, Yuri Vladimirovich’s wife and son were nearby while working on roles or circus acts. Tatyana Nikulina starred in episodic roles in the films “The Diamond Arm” (tour guide), “New Girl”, “Point, Point, Comma”.

One day Eldar Ryazanov invited her to participate in photo tests for the main role in the film “The Hussar Ballad”. She was practically cast in the role. But at the family council it was decided that one artist would be enough in the Nikulin family. The couple's busy filming schedule could break the family's established way of life.

The actor’s son, Maxim, despite his early experience working on camera on the set of the film “The Diamond Arm,” where he played a boy with a net in the famous scene, did not continue the acting dynasty.

Maxim graduated from the Faculty of Journalism and worked for a long time in publishing houses, radio stations and television.

In 1993, the son began helping his father in the circus and now continues his father’s work as director of the Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard.

Maxim Yuryevich has children and grandchildren, three of them. Daughter Maria became a neurosurgeon and lives and works in Germany. The eldest of the sons is named after his grandfather Yuri, an artist. Works in a circus as the head of the advertising department. The youngest son, Maxim Maksimovich, also has an acting education. He is responsible for organizing the circus's foreign tours.

All the men of the Nikulin family continued the work of their father and grandfather.

There was a lot of controversy and jokes surrounding the issue of Yuri Nikulin’s nationality. He himself laughed it off in his usual manner - with anecdotes. It so happened that almost all of the family’s friends were Jewish. Yuri Vladimirovich himself had such an atypical appearance that many were at a loss.

There is no direct answer to this question. Known ancestors of Yuri Vladimirovich were Russian. They diligently avoided the national issue, and the actor himself never divided people by nationality.

Filmography: films starring Yuri Nikulin

But he still had an amazing film career ahead of him, although no one expected this. His work in the circus eventually led him to audition for films. At first these were very small roles, but even there he was well remembered by the audience, therefore, offers began to arrive one after another. Finally, his real first success was the role of Goonie in the short film “Dog Barbos and the Extraordinary Cross.”

This Soviet comedy picture made the audience laugh to tears, and after that Nikulin began to receive simply countless offers in films, and each picture brought him extraordinary fame and recognition. As for his personal life, Yuri Nikulin lived his entire life with Tatyana Nikolaevna Pokrovskaya, who was also a creative person, not only acted in films, but also translated books from English. The couple had a son, Maxim, who was growing up.

Death of Yuri Nikulin

Seven years of war, a busy schedule and emotional upheavals at work had a negative impact on the artist’s health. He had a whole bunch of diseases - diabetes, problems with the cardiovascular system, lungs.

In 1997, Yuri Vladimirovich underwent an examination, which revealed the need for heart surgery. Despite his poor health, the artist easily decided to undergo the operation and was not afraid of it.

Everything went quite successfully, but complications began to develop in the postoperative period. Doctors fought for the artist’s life for 16 days. But on August 21, 1997, his heart stopped forever. Cause of death: blockage of heart vessels.

The death of the artist shocked the audience. Nikulin was loved very much, and of course, they regretted his departure.

The funeral of the popularly beloved artist took place on August 26. Thousands of people came to the circus for the funeral service: spectators, celebrities, war veterans, circus veterans.

The whole country was sad for their beloved artist. When Yuri Vladimirovich died, newspapers published articles every day with headlines like: “The unit of kindness is one Nikulin.”

Personal life of the artist

Source: Mikhail Guterman/Fotodom.ru

After the release of the film “The Diamond Arm,” many viewers believed that in real life the actor was married to Nina Grebeshkova. Of course, this was not true. Yuri Vladimirovich met his love in the same circus. One day, students from the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy came to practice, and among them was Tatyana Pokrovskaya, who was entrusted with caring for the clown Karandash’s new horse.

“Pencil led us into the dressing room, sat us on a big young man’s drawer and said: “Yura, take care of them.” He sat on this box, a gangly, thin young man with a surprisingly charming smile, with surprisingly kind eyes, dangling his legs and terribly embarrassed. I really liked him,” said Tatyana Pokrovskaya.

Nikulin also liked her. Once during a performance, the artist was seriously injured and ended up in the hospital. This situation brought them even closer - six months later the couple got married. Tatyana Nikolaevna became not just the artist’s wife, but also performed with him in the arena. In 1956, the couple had a son, Maxim. The couple lived together for more than forty years and, according to their son, were always together.

Tatyana Pokrovskaya, the artist’s wife

Source: Legion-Media

In 1997, Yuri Vladimir celebrated his 75th birthday in his native circus. A grand celebration was organized in honor of the hero of the day, and on the same day the circus was named after Yuri Nikulin. Unfortunately, this was the last birthday of the great artist.

Source: Mikhail Guterman/Fotodom.ru

Recently, Nikulin had heart problems and needed surgery, after which there was a complication. On August 21, 1997, the artist passed away and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Source: Sergey Ivanov/Fotodom.ru

In many cities of Russia, monuments were erected to Yuri Vladimirovich, one of the most famous is located near his native circus. The sculptors were able to immortalize the kind, cheerful and mischievous clown - just like the artist himself was all his life. Yuri Nikulin fulfilled his main dream - he made many people smile, made them happy and joyful, and also gave iconic paintings, after viewing which we smile again and again and remember the great artist.