Why didn't Nikulin and Gaidai communicate with Morgunov?

Surely you, like most viewers, think that Nikulin, Vitsin and Morgunov were friends not only on the screen, but also in everyday life. However, if Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin still maintained communication with Vitsin, then he tried to avoid Morgunov in every possible way. The cult Soviet director Leonid Gaidai, the author of such famous films as Operation Y and Other Adventures of Shurik, 12 Chairs, Ivan Vasilyevich Changes his profession, did the same.

What caused the discord between them? Let's find out.

Well, who doesn't know a Coward, a Dunce and a Seasoned One? We can say that these roles are business cards of favorite actors. At least, Evgenia Morgunov — that's right...Yuri Nikulin managed to star in many good films during his career, for example, "The Diamond Hand", "Old Robbers", "To me, Mukhtar!". Vitsin also has many good roles on his account: "Gentlemen of Fortune", "The Marriage of Balzaminov", "The Land of Sannikov"... But Morgunov did not distinguish himself with special success in this field. Throughout his life, he was known as a "Seasoned", and this visibly depressed him.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the actor was distinguished by such a bad character. Yes, it is known that Evgeny Morgunov was a rather difficult man... and his most characteristic feature was a strange sense of humor. For example, he could get on a tram and start checking tickets, pretending to be a ticket inspector. And once he took off the horns of a trolleybus at a bus stop, asked a passerby to hold them, and he just left.

Worst of all, his friends and acquaintances often suffered from his humor. He made offensive jokes in their direction, and they tolerated it, however, for the time being…

Once, during the filming of The Caucasian Captive, an incident occurred that forever put an end to the relationship between Morgunov and Gaidai. Late at night, the entire film crew was watching the finished takes in a closed hall, when suddenly Morgunov came into the room, pretty drunk. In addition, he brought two drunk girls with him and began to comment on everything that was happening on the screen.

The actor was politely asked to keep his voice down, but instead he just got even more angry. The last straw was a phrase he uttered to Gaidai, something like: "Don't you catch mice at all! Big deal, director, Fellini to me too!".

Leonid Iovich was offended by these words: he crossed out all the remaining scenes with Morgunov and said that the film crew no longer needed his services. In the general shots, he was replaced by an understudy. In Gaidai's films, Morgunov no longer appeared. And although he tried to apologize to the director, he was adamant.

As for the quarrel between Morgunov and Nikulin, it happened a little later. A cruel joke with Evgeny Alexandrovich was played, again, by his sense of humor. The actor shamelessly enjoyed acquaintance with Yuri Nikulin, so he often attended his circus performances without tickets, and sometimes even brought relatives and friends with him.

During the next show, he decided to play a friend. Morgunov introduced himself as a deputy and told all the people standing in line at the cash register that now Nikulin would personally deal with the housing issue of workers. Soon there was a queue under the actor's office, and he had to explain for a long time that this was just a prank.

After that, Nikulin strictly forbade Morgunov to enter the circus, saying that "they have enough clowns of their own." At that time, the beloved trinity was just about to start touring, but Yuri Vladimirovich refused to go — because of Morgunov. And here Evgeny Alexandrovich was already offended. The fact is that he really counted on these tours, so he got angry at Nikulin, because it was his fault that they broke down.

Again, the actors began to communicate only in the 90s. And even then, their friendship was no longer the same as before.