"Daddy! Is there a light?": funny story of the bearded man from the Diamond Hand

This actor appeared in Leonid Gaidai's comedy "The Diamond Hand" for only 20 seconds. He didn't even get into the credits, but everyone remembered him. But almost no one knows who this colorful bearded man is and how he got into the cult Soviet film. We discover the secret of this actor and his hero.

The phrase of a brutal bearded man with a skull on his neck "Daddy, is there a light?" it became winged. And it was pronounced by Leonid Petrovich Pleshakov, a journalist and a man who was still far from cinema at that time. Since childhood, he dreamed of a career as a journalist and wanted to specialize in interviews. And journalistic work absolutely accidentally led him to the cinema. Pleshakov did not become a star, but he played several memorable roles.

Leonid Pleshakov stood out among his colleagues in the journalistic workshop by his appearance. The height of 190 cm, an oblique fathom in the shoulders and a thick beard invariably distinguished the journalist from the crowd. Pleshakov himself claimed that his complexion helped him a lot in his work. Either in jest, or seriously, he said:

Simply put, it is psychologically difficult to dismiss such a journalist and refuse him an interview, and not everyone will decide to do it. Therefore, Pleshakov often got difficult, even hopeless tasks. Leonid Petrovich himself was a good journalist and, most importantly, principled. He always had his own point of view and he was able to defend it.

The most advanced publications of the 60-70s liked to work with Pleshakov: Komsomolka, Smena, Ogonyok. He was also a real polymath, and his colleagues called him a "walking encyclopedia". And later he was also recognized as a wonderful actor of a short episode.

Leonid Petrovich told about how he managed to get a role in the "Diamond Hand" as follows:

Nikulin immediately explained that Leonid Gaidai was shooting a new film. There, his hero Gorbunkov, fearing surveillance, unexpectedly encounters a huge suspicious man with a skull-shaped pendant on his hairy chest in an underground passage. A passerby asks Gorbunkov an innocent question, but he is frightened by the skull and answers at random.

Leonid Gaidai rightly reasoned that a massive skull on a string would look more colorful on a wide and certainly hairy chest. Pleshakov immediately agreed to try himself in a small role. But in return, he asked to arrange an interview with the director of the film. "Agreed," Nikulin said, and he and Kio went about their business.

The journalist almost forgot about this conversation, but a few days later he received a call from Mosfilm and was invited to a costume fitting. Pleshakov approached the role of a suspicious man perfectly and Gaidai approved him. The 20-second episode itself was not filmed in an underground passage at all. It was an underground toilet located at the entrance to the Gorky Central Park, on the side of Leninsky Prospekt.

The short episode had to be filmed for four hours. Gaidai constantly clung to some little things and achieved perfect shots. He kept Nikulin's promise and gave Pleshakov an interview. After the release of The Diamond Hand, the journalist became popular. They recognized him on the street and shouted after him, "Daddy, can you find a light?". However, Leonid Petrovich even liked it.

This was just the beginning of the journalist's film career. After Gaidai's comedy, he was invited to the cinema for episodic roles. Leonid Pleshakov played 11 more of them. He used his new acquaintances in the cinema for "personal purposes" — after each shooting he interviewed directors and actors. Leonid Pleshakov passed away in 2004. His grave is located on Ostankino Cemetery in Moscow.