Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Yuri Nikulin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin (Russian: Юрий Владимирович Никулин; 18 December 1921 – 21 August 1997) was a well-known Russian clown and actor who played in many popular films.
Nikulin served in the Soviet Army during the Great Patriotic War and the Winter War with Finland. Once the war ended, he applied to several acting schools and theatres but was rejected due to "lacking artistic talent". Then he got accepted into the Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard and worked there for more than 50 years, rising from clown to CEO. His most popular films include comedies Brilliantovaia Ruka, 12 Stulyev, Stariki-Razboiniki, and many others, but he was also acclaimed for his roles in Andrey Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev and several films on the World War II themes (Sergei Bondarchuk's They Were Fighting for Homeland, Aleksei German’s Twenty Days Without War). In Russia, he's also well-known for his playing 'Balbes' in popular film series about a petty criminal trio (Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures, and Kidnapping Caucassian Style directed by Leonid Gaidai).
All his life Yuri Nikulin was fond of funny stories, which he started collecting while serving the army; the hobby later resulted in the TV show White Parrot Club and jest-books “From Nikulin”
He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1973, and of Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990. He was succeeded in his office at the Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard by his son. There is a bronze monument to him in front of the circus, which now bears his name. He is buried in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.