Who does not know the legendary Evgeny Morgunov - the good-natured fat man from the comic trio of Gaidai ?! Seeing his cheerful hilarious face, one would think that the actor never experienced in life neither grief nor suffering. However, it is not.
The biography of the artist Evgeny Morgunov is replete with all sorts of sorrows and disappointments. In childhood, he experienced deprivation and poverty, in his youth - oblivion and non-recognition, in adulthood - illness and mental suffering. Therefore, the fact that he smiled so reliably and made him laugh, speaks of great and inimitable skill and talent.
Yes, Yevgeny Morgunov, whose biography, personal life and acting will be considered in this article, was remembered by all friends and spectators as a funny joker and joker. Let’s take a deeper look and find out how he lived and what this original inimitable actor aspired to.
Childhood
The biography of Yevgeny Morgunov originates in the distant and difficult 1927. The future actor was born in Moscow, in a family of ordinary workers.
The father left the children when Zhenya was one year old. This negatively affected the economic situation of the whole family. Mother was forced to work in a factory. Then she found a nurse's place in the Ostroumovsky hospital. So all family members needed.
Then it got worse. The Great Patriotic War began, which brought famine and devastation to the house. At the age of fourteen, Eugene went to work at a factory for the manufacture of artillery shells, where he grind blanks along with adults - twelve hours a day, almost without breaks and days off. In order for the kid to get to the machine, he was presented with a huge wooden box.
Malnutrition in the Morgunov family has become commonplace. There was not enough money; good products were impossible to find. Once, a mother brought a pack of butter from work. Eugene, who had not eaten in the morning, attacked the product and swallowed it whole. After that, he became very ill - the pancreas refused. The boy was taken to the hospital and barely pumped out. After that, Morgunov had a metabolic disorder, which subsequently led to diabetes.
Youth
Despite the hardships, the future famous actor grew up as a playful and cheerful child. He studied through his sleeves, but he loved football and other outdoor games. And the guys did not play with the ball, but with a tin can.
The biography of Yevgeny Morgunov, in fact, is inextricably linked with acting. He performed at school, played on the stage of the House of Culture and regularly visited the cinema, spending almost all pocket money on cheap morning sessions.
Zhenya really wanted to become an actor. He was attracted by the possibility of reincarnation, he wanted to become a hero and impress the audience with his game.
At the age of fifteen, the guy wanted to enter a theater school. However, the director of the factory where he worked did not want to let go of a responsible, hardworking young man. Then Eugene, without thinking twice, wrote a letter to Stalin himself, asking him to leave the production for the sake of teaching acting.
Surprisingly, a positive response from the leader came literally a month later. Joseph Vissarionovich sent a letter addressed to the general director of the plant with an order to seconde comrade Morgunov to study at the theater school. Since then, the biography of Morgunov Eugene was closely associated only with acting.
Education
In the beginning, the guy took courses at the Chamber Theater, but a year later he transferred to the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography. It was a wise and right decision.
At that time, young Morgunov (and he was barely seventeen) was a very interesting and sophisticated young man, with regular features and a beautiful figure. Thanks to such external data, as well as his bright eccentric talent, Zhenya was invited to episodic roles in famous films dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War. These were the films “Days and Nights”, “At six o’clock in the evening after the war”, “Native Fields” and “It was in the Donbass”, where the aspiring actor vividly and realistically played the soldier, artilleryman, conscript and underground, respectively. And although the name of the actor was not mentioned in the credits, this did not discourage him, but encouraged him to play even more talented and sincere.
First bright role
Soon, the gifted student was entrusted with a leading role in the new film. Sergey Gerasimov, his teacher at the institute, decided to make a full-length film based on the novel “Young Guard”, where he wanted to involve almost all of his students.
He assigned the charming and graceful Morgunov a central role, but the screenwriter of the film Fadeev saw another actor in the main character. Then Eugene was offered to play a hero of a completely different plan - the traitor Stakhovich. The young actor approached his role so seriously and so responsibly that he completely related to the image, realistically conveying all the feelings and emotions of his character.
Since then, Yevgeny Morgunov, whose biography has become of interest to all his fans, has gained all-Union fame and recognition. He became famous, became recognizable. His workshop, a genuine game, was so impressive and amazing that it nearly cost him his life! One day a group of children attacked Morgunov, calling him a traitor and an enemy. And if it were not for the timely arriving actor Ivanov, who explained to the boys their delusion, who knows how this could all have ended.
However, in 1964, the film was revised and redone in connection with changes in the political system, as well as with the advent of new data. For example, it became known that Stakhovich betrayed the Young Guard voluntarily, and not under torture, as previously thought. Therefore, the hero of Morgunov was renamed to Pocheptsova, and many episodes with his participation were cut out or duplicated. Because of all this, the role of Eugene became small, almost episodic, in which it became impossible to consider the unlimited talent and skill of the young actor.
Theatrical activity
After graduating from VGIK, the creative biography of Yevgeny Morgunov was closely intertwined with his place of work - the Theater-Studio of the film actor, where he played small episodic roles. Unfortunately, on stage, the artist was unable to reveal himself fully. Perhaps on the stage, he felt constrained and constrained. Or some interpersonal troubles and misunderstandings interfered. Whatever it was, but they wanted to expel Yevgeny several times from the theater for inactivity and mediocrity. All that saved was that he was still filming a movie.
Movie episodes
Until the 1960s, the acting biography of Yevgeny Morgunov could not be called successful. By this time, one can attribute only a multitude of diverse, but episodic roles in films and films. These were paintings of military-political subjects, which almost did not reach the modern viewer.
In many credits, the name of Morgunov was not even used, which, however, does not indicate his mediocrity or mediocrity. The actor was easily given the roles of both a miner and a soldier, both an anarchist and a policeman. Perhaps he would be remembered forever as an artist of the episode, if not for one lucky coincidence.
Trio of comic antiheroes
It so happened that at this time, the novice director Leonid Gaidai was experiencing a personal creative crisis. To somehow escape from depression, he decided to create something that no one had yet created - a short film of comic content. The actors were found immediately on the role of the two main characters, but no one agreed to the role of the third character.
But once Morgunova noticed Ivan Pyryev - director of Mosfilm. It was he who advised Gaidai to try the actor for the role. Indeed, the plump and bald man Eugene became just a find - it was the spitting-up Experienced, one of the three bosom fellow offenders.
Experienced
The creative biography of actor Yevgeny Morgunov after that has changed radically. He began to play in comedies, vitally and comically embodying in the frame his hero - a massive, strong and confident person, the leader of a criminal gang.
Together with this role, an all-union love and recognition came to the artist again. He was recognized on the street, invited to concerts and evenings, involved in films and television programs.
In what films did the actor Evgeni Morgunov appear in the role of Experienced? The biography and filmography of the artist speak for themselves. Of course, these were the famous “Moonshiners”, as well as “The Captive of the Caucasus”, “Operation Y”, “Give the Complaint Book”, “Comedy of Bygone Days” and others.
Break
There was a period when Vitsin, Nikulin and Morgunov were very friendly and inseparable, often met and rested together. However, a little later this unity was broken due to the stupid rallies of Evgeny Morgunov.
In addition, Eugene had the imprudence to rude Gaidai, which also negatively affected his creative activity. Since then, the actor again began to be invited only to episodes.
Until his death, Morgunov played short minor roles, very offended and yearning for fame and recognition.
Character
Friends remember Eugene as a comic joker and a lover of practical jokes. Despite serious health problems (since the age of twenty-five, the actor had diabetes), Morgunov was famous for his cheerful and cheerful disposition.
He loved to make fun of people, and he did this not always harmlessly. Basically, strangers did not recognize that they had been deceived, and friends and relatives rarely took offense at the comedian.
For example, Eugene could take a taxi for free, showing the driver a non-existent red certificate and assuring that he served faithfully for the good of the Fatherland.
