Biography of Lion Izmailov
Lion Moiseevich Izmailov is a talented Russian satirist, writer and screenwriter, three-time winner of the Golden Calf award. His performances were always distinguished by intelligent humor and inner charm, which made them truly unique. It was Lion Izmailov who gave the now classic definition of satire: “Humor is when you really want to laugh, and satire is when you want to laugh, but you’re afraid...”
Satirist Lion Izmailov himself
Early years, childhood and family of Lion Izmailov
Lion Moiseevich Polyak, and this is exactly what the satirist’s real name sounds like, was born in the capital of the USSR - Moscow, in the outlying district of Rostokino.
His childhood passed in this city; his creative destiny was inextricably linked with it. The boy's father, Moisei Aronovich, worked as a civil engineer at one of the Moscow urban planning enterprises. Mom, Polya Moiseevna, was an ordinary employee in one of the Soviet bureaus. Their life went on as usual, but the Second World War, which approached the borders of the USSR, immediately changed the life of the Jewish family beyond recognition. Many years of hardship and hardship began. His father went to the front, and when Lyon was barely three years old, tragic news came from the front line - Moses went missing.
Lion Izmailov in his youth
During this difficult time, Lyon attended high school, and spent all his free time helping his mother with housework. That’s when his first creative sketches were born, for example, at the age of five he wrote a “novel about rural life” that took up half a page. After the end of the war, he went to school, where he enrolled in an extracurricular drama club and for the first time thought about a career as a professional comedian, although at first he believed that he would become a comedian, not a spoken-word artist.
Lyon began writing humorous sketches in high school, and some time later he began to devote almost every free minute to creating them.
The time has come to think about further education. Lyon intended to apply to a variety school, but his mother insisted on a more “applied” specialty. As a result, the young man ended up in an aviation technical school, received a well-deserved diploma in 1960 and got a job as a specialist at one of the specialized capital enterprises.
Leon Izmailov. About business in Russian During this period, he practically did not remember creativity. Only in 1962, having entered the Moscow Aviation Institute, Lyon again began working on satirical sketches. During the same period, the stage name “Izmailov” was born, which initially sounded like “Izmailov”, which literally meant “From MAI”.
The newly minted Izmailov spent his leisure time in a local amateur group. Here, on the institute stage of the Moscow Aviation Institute, his debut performance took place.
Childhood and youth
Lyon was born on May 5, 1940 in Moscow into a simple Jewish family of civil engineer Moisei Aronovich Polyak and Soviet bureau employee Poly Moiseevna Polyak. When the baby was three years old, the father went missing, and the mother had to carry the child alone. Little Lyon helped his mother as best he could. At the age of five, the boy developed a passion for writing. One of the first stories took up half a page in length and bore the loud title “A Novel about Rural Life.”
Comedian Lion Izmailov
In his autobiography “My Dears,” Lion Izmailov talks about his stepfather. Efim Veniaminovich Babinsky, a recently demobilized senior lieutenant who lost his wife and child during the war, came to Moscow to visit his sister. She introduced her brother to Polya Moiseevna in 1947. It was difficult for the boy to find a common language with his silent, withdrawn stepfather. Nevertheless, thanks to Efim, the Poles lived quite well and even got an apartment in 1967.
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Lyon was an excellent student until the eighth grade of school, but adolescence made its presence felt. In addition, in those days, men's and women's schools were combined into secondary schools, which, no doubt, distracted from diligent study. After receiving the certificate, the young man thought about a career as a pop artist. But his mother insisted that every man needs a rewarding profession, and Lyon went to an aviation technical school.
Lion Izmailov in his youth
For two years, from 1960 to 1962, the future satirist worked as a technologist at an enterprise related to the military-industrial complex. And in 1962, the guy entered the Moscow Aviation Institute. S. Ordzhonikidze. He left the institute as a certified design engineer, but that’s not the main thing. The main thing is that Lion Izmailov was born in MAI (at first the pseudonym sounded like Izmailov, i.e. “from MAI”, later “i” turned into “th”).
As the satirist later liked to joke, during his student years he received an education in two specialties - “design engineer” and “amateur artistic performance”. And he added that he saved many human lives by writing monologues, and not by designing airplanes.
The creative path of Lion Izmailov: comedian, writer, presenter
After graduating from the institute, the satirist worked for several years as an engineer at the Rodina design bureau, while simultaneously improving in the field of amateur performances.
Monologues of a culinary college student were written by Lion Izmailov. In 1969, the humorous works of Lion Izmailov first appeared in the press. The first published sketch (“New Mata Hari”, Literaturnaya Gazeta publication) was received with a bang, and after that Lion Moiseevich became a regular author of the humorous column “Club of 12 Chairs”. The first major success was followed by an acquaintance with the hosts of the then popular children's radio program “Baby Monitor” - Alexander Livshits and Alexander Levenbuk, who offered Izmailov cooperation. So Lion Moiseevich joined a group of authors consisting of Eduard Uspensky and Arkady Khait, and received the status of a professional writer. One of the writer’s most popular stories, “Cool Dnieper in Cool Weather,” was aired on “Baby Monitor,” which later brought him the first “Golden Calf” award and became the basis for the first issue of “Jumble” by Boris Grachevsky.
Lion Izmailov. My hero This period was also marked by the beginning of Lion Izmailov’s collaboration with Gennady Khazanov, for whom the satirist wrote a sketch called “Monologue of a Culinary College Student.” It was after the demonstration of this miniature that Gennady Viktorovich literally woke up as an all-Union celebrity. Subsequently, Izmailov expanded his colleague’s repertoire with such numbers as “TV”, “Monument”, “Our People”, “Svinstvo”.
The “Old Guard” of Russian Humor
A year later, Lion Izmailov later headed the author’s group of the Palace of Culture of his native Moscow Aviation Institute. In 1973, he entered the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors at Goskino, where for two years he studied with the well-known Georgy Danelia, who personally chose him from many applicants.
After completing the courses, Izmailov created seven plays, including “A Difficult Case” staged on television (in the book version - “Lunch Break”). However, Lion Moiseevich himself believed that he was not a screenwriter, and close friends spoke of his plays as follows: “they were appreciated and therefore will never be staged.”
Lion Izmailov
Since 1979, Lion Izmailov himself began to appear on stage as a comedian and presenter, touring the whole country. In the same year, the 39-year-old satirist was accepted into the Writers' Union, after which foreign business trips followed: Yugoslavia, Bulgaria (where he became a laureate of the Aleko humor competition), Israel, the USA, Germany.
Over the following years, Lion Izmailov won the love of his compatriots as a gifted writer and an incredibly charismatic artist. Since the 80s, his monologues have been heard from the stage from the mouths of Evgeny Petrosyan, Elena Stepanenko, Svetlana Rozhkova, Yan Arlazorov, Efim Shifrin and other outstanding Soviet pop stars.
75th anniversary of Lion Izmailov
In 1984, Lion Izmailov’s first book was published - a collection of short stories “Good Mood”. Two years later, the collection “Share of Truth”, written in collaboration with Valery Chudodeev, saw the light of day. Later, Vitaly Cheburov (“The Four Musketeers”) and Mikhail Zadornov, a colleague of Lion Moiseevich not only in the “satirical workshop”, but also at the Moscow Aviation Institute (“The End of the World, or Good Mood”) also appeared among Izmailov’s co-authors. Lion Izmailov and Mikhail Zadornov - Removed from TV In 1989, Lion Izmailov became co-host of Angelina Vovk in the “Adult Children” project for the next two years. At the same time, he became the artistic director of the Plus humor theater, which continued to exist after the collapse of the USSR. Among the “Plus” repertoire, the numbers “I Want to Be President”, “Madhouse named after. Karl Marx", "Evening of jokes".
Lion Izmailov's office
Lion Izmailov is also known as a children's writer - he wrote the fairy tale “Liverpool the Frog,” first published in 1984. In 2008, the collection “Liverpool the Frog, or a Merry Piggy Bank” was released, which included other stories by Leon Izmailov. In addition, his bibliography includes a work for older children – a collection of science fiction stories “Alien”, published in 2012.
Lion Izmailov walks around Baku
Lion Izmailov - biography
Lion Izmailov, whose real name is Polyak, was born in 1940 in Moscow. His father, Moisei Aronovich Polyak, worked as a civil engineer, went to the front when the Great Patriotic War began, and went missing there, and his mother, Polya Moiseevna, was an employee, and later raised her son herself.
While studying at school, the boy began to write his first stories and attended a drama club. Thinking about his future profession, he already dreamed of becoming a professional comedian, and devoted more and more time to writing humorous sketches.
After graduating from school, the young man wanted to apply to a pop technical school, but his mother dissuaded him, insisting that he enter an aviation technical school. After graduating, Lyon began working in his specialty, and two years later he entered the Moscow Aviation Institute. As a student, he took an active part in amateur performances and continued to write satirical sketches, inventing a pseudonym for himself - Izmailov. He performed his works on the institute stage, gaining popularity among students and teachers.
After graduating from university, Lyon began working as engineers in a design bureau, and in 1969 he began publishing in the press. When his sketch “New Mata Hari” was published in Literaturnaya Gazeta, which was received enthusiastically by readers, Izmailov was offered to constantly publish in the humorous column “Club of 12 Chairs.”
Having become quite famous in literary circles, Lyon met the hosts of the popular program “Nanny Monitor,” who invited him to join the team of authors involved in the creation of this program. Arkady Khait and Eduard Uspensky already worked here, and soon Izmailov received the status of a professional writer. It was on the air of this program that his story was first heard - “Cool Dnieper in cool weather”, for which he later received the prestigious Golden Calf award.
By the way: Gennady Khazanov - biography, Wikipedia
During this period, Izmailov began collaborating with Gennady Khazanov, and, as you know, the sketch he wrote, “Monologue of a Culinary College Student,” which Khazanov read, immediately made him famous throughout the country. Their collaboration lasted for quite a long time, and Izmailov wrote many skits for Khazanov, which were received with a bang by the audience.
In 1973, the satirist entered the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors at Goskino, where he studied with the famous Georgy Danelia. And although after completing the courses, Lion Moiseevich wrote seven plays, he himself believes that he never became a real screenwriter.
In 1979, Izmailov first appeared on the pop stage as a comedian, and began to actively tour throughout the country, and when he soon became a member of the Writers' Union, he began touring abroad.
Over the years of his creative activity, the satirist wrote many stories and monologues, which he performed himself, as well as famous humorists - Evgeny Petrosyan, Gennady Khazanov, Efim Shifrin, Yan Arlazorov, Vladimir Vinokur and many others.
Lion Moiseevich actively collaborated with television, being the host of many humorous programs, and also published several collections of stories and children's books.
Personal life of Lion Izmailov
Lion Izmailov lived most of his life with Elena Sorokina, photo editor of the magazine for foreign tourists, Travel to the USSR. However, in 1972, when the future spouses met, she was still working as a salesperson in the Journalist store. Having bet with a friend that he would meet a girl using the first phrase he came across, Lyon approached Elena standing behind the counter and said: “Didn’t they bring Feuerbach?” She said in fear: “No, they didn’t deliver it...” and offered to write down her phone number in case they delivered it.
Young Lion Izmailov with his wife
Lion Moiseevich joked “I am married to the same wife twice” so often that he subsequently got tired of answering questions about whether this was really so. He signed with Elena in 1975, and three years later the couple divorced. “We couldn’t get along,” said the satirist. It took five years for both to realize that they could not live without each other, and to get back together.
Lion Izmailov and Elena Sorokina
