- Title: RUSSIA: RUSSIANS MOURN DEATH OF CIRCUS CLOWN AND ACTOR YURI NIKULIN.
- Date: 25th August 1997
- Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (AUGUST 25, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV/PAN: EXTERIOR OF MOSCOW CENTRAL CIRCUS 0.12 2. GV: FLOWERS AND PICTURE OF YURI NIKULIN 0.17 3. GV: MOURNERS GOING INTO THE CIRCUS TO SEE YURI NIKULIN'S BODY (2 SHOTS) 0.29 4. SV: RUSSIAN PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN AND PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR CHERNOMYRDIN ARRIVING 0.38 5. GV: VARIOUS OF MOURNERS FILING PAST COFFIN 0.49 6. MV: NIKULIN'S BODY 0.53 7. GV/CU: VARIOUS OF MOURNERS (6 SHOTS) 1.34 (RTR - NO ACCESS CIS) 8. GV/MCU: NIKULIN IN A HORSE-DRAWN TROIKA DURING A PERFORMANCE IN HIS CIRCUS (3 SHOTS) 1.45 9. STILL OF NIKULIN 1.48 10. FILM CLIP SHOWING NIKULIN IN "OPERATION Y" 1.59 Initials s.3 - p.3 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 9th September 1997 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
- City:
- Country: Russia
- Reuters ID: LVABUIZ2YXTYWYGDM34YKI9JLAEO
- Story Text: INTRO: Thousands of Russians, including President Boris Yeltsin, have paid their last respects to their national hero - Yuri Nikulin - a beloved circus clown and actor who died on Thursday aged 75.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- People queued at Moscow's Central Circus on Monday (August 25) to catch a final glimpse of Yuri Nikulin - whose body lay in state inside the building where he often performed.
Nikulin first put on his clown mask during the uncomical Stalin years when he obtained work in Moscow's premier circus after finding little sucess as an actor.
He delighted people young and old with his performances, before returning to acting.
His starring roles in comedies such as "Prisoner of the Caucasus," "Operation Y," and "Diamond Arm," won him fans across the Soviet Union and are still regarded as some of the best Soviet-era comedies. He also appeared in Andrei Tarkovsky's dramatic epic "Andrei Rublyev." After his film successes, Nikulin made an unprecedented transformation from clown to circus ringmaster, heading Moscow's world-famous circus on Tsvetnoi Boulevard.
During his lifetime, Nikulin was honoured by the government with national awards for his film and circus contributions including the Soviet Union's highest honours such as Hero of Socialist Labour and the Order of Lenin.
Yeltsin and Chernomyrdin paid lavish tributes to Nikulin after learning of his death.
"We have talented and good people in Russia. The most talented, the best of all was Yuri Nikulin. Everybody loved him - from the small to the great," said Yeltsin in a nationally televised address on Friday.
Nikulin is to be buried on Tuesday (August 26) in Moscow's historic Novodevichy Cemetery which also holds the graves of Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol, Nikita Khrushchev, Mikhail Bulgalkov, and Stalin's wife, Svetlana Alliluyeva.
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