Dropped out of school after the third grade
Actor Mikhail Pugovkin was born in the village of Rameshki, Kostroma province. He lived under the surname Pugonkin until he was almost 20 years old. The family of the future artist was poor, and from an early age he helped his parents work in the garden. After the third grade, Pugonkin left school and continued to work. In his spare time, he entertained his peasant friends with songs and dances, who jokingly predicted his career as an artist.
When Pugonkin was 13 years old, his mother, Natalya Mikhailovna, needed treatment, and the family moved to a relative in Moscow.
Worked as an electrician in a factory
Pugonkin added two years to himself in Moscow and became an apprentice electrician at the Moscow Brake Plant named after Kaganovich. After work, she spent her free time in a drama circle at a local club.
By chance, director Fyodor Kaverin noticed her and invited her to the supporting cast of the Moscow Drama Theater. Despite the fact that the electrician at the factory received 450 rubles a month, and the theater artist – 75, his mother blessed Pugonkin for acting.
May lose a front leg
From 1939 to 1941 Pugonkin served at the Moscow Drama Theater, after which he volunteered for the front. He became a scout in a rifle regiment and fought unscathed near Smolensk. After a leg injury near Voroshilovgrad in 1942, Pugonkin contracted gangrene. The frontline doctor was about to amputate his limb, but the actor convinced him not to do it.
“I am an artist! How will I work? said Pugonkin.
The doctor made a mistake filling out the documents, and the artist left the hospital under the name Pugovkin. He never returned to the front.
I brought my mother back from the forced labor camp
During the war, Natalya Mikhailovna was arrested on tip-off – while working in a pie shop, she stole a pie from her shift and cooked soup on it for her family. For this, the woman was exiled to the Vyatka forced labor camp (Vyatlag). The promising actor detailed this situation in a message to Joseph Stalin – and a week later the mother was released “according to a letter from her son.”
Expelled from the Moscow Art Theater School
People’s Artist of the USSR Ivan Moskvin intervened for Pugovkin’s admission to the recently opened Moscow Art Theater School. Despite three training classes, the actress managed to enter and successfully forget for almost two years. Pugovkin failed the Marxism, history and French exams in his second year and was expelled from school. In 1944 he entered the 2nd Gorky Tank School in Vetluga and began to supervise amateur artistic activities there. A year later, Pugovkin was able to return to the Moscow Art Theater School.
He worked in the theaters of Murmansk, Vilnius and Vologda.
After graduating in 1947, Pugovkin went to Murmansk with his wife, Nadezhda Nadezhdina, to serve for one season in the Northern Fleet Drama Theater. The artist, who worked at the Vilnius Russian Drama Theater in the 1948-1949 season, later returned to Moscow and worked at the Lenin Komsomol Theater for eight years. In 1958-1959 he worked at the Vologda Drama Theater, after which he decided to devote himself to shooting a movie.
He acted in six of Gaidai’s films.
Pugovkin called his work with Leonid Gaidai his favorite period of his work. He starred in six films of the director in a row – “Operation Y and Other Adventures of Shurik”, “Twelve Chairs”, “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession”, “Can’t Be!”, “For Matches” and “Sportloto- 82”. After the role in “Operation Y”, the director invited Pugovkin to act in the movie with the words: “I’ll give you the script, and tell me who you want to play!”
Scalded with boiling water on the set of the movie “Sportloto-82”
While working on the movie “Sportloto-82”, Pugovkin boiled water in a one-liter canister and accidentally knocked it over. The actor was hospitalized and work on the tape had to be suspended for three weeks. He is still not fully healed, came to the area with bandages and his movements are limited.
I didn’t make a movie without approval.
The actor was an extremely religious person and often visited temples. He did not start filming without his mother’s approval – Gaidai even had to wait three weeks for Pugovkin to get permission to play Father Fyodor in the movie “12 Chairs”. “I’m a believer, even my back got cold,” said Pugovkin, when he put on a robe on the set. The director himself said that he was a believer and suggested: “Let’s cross ourselves and start the movie.”
He wanted to be buried next to Alexander Abdulov
The actor passed away on July 25, 2008, at the age of 85, at his home in Moscow, due to an exacerbation of diabetes. Four days later, in Pugovkin’s last will, he was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery next to his friend Alexander Abdulov, who had helped him in recent years. He helped Pugovkin get an apartment in Moscow, gave him a decent pension and helped him work at the Mikhail Pugovkin Cinema Center. After Abdulov’s death on January 3, 2008, Pugovkin also predicted that he would leave soon, saying that he would “meet Sasha soon”.