Postman's departure: TV presenter Yuri Nikolaev has died

Yuri Nikolaev, the permanent presenter of the popular TV programs "Morning Mail" and "Morning Star", has died. With his help, many pop stars lit up, but he managed to gain his own star status on his own, without the support of relatives and colleagues. Izvestia tells about the most remarkable pages of the TV presenter's biography.

Acting career

Yuri Nikolaev was born on December 16, 1948 in Chisinau (Moldavian USSR) in a family of law enforcement officers. His father, Alexander Silvestrovich, held the rank of colonel, distinguished himself in battles during the Great Patriotic War, and was awarded orders and medals. His mother, Valentina Ignatovna, was also an officer and participated in the war. However, Nikolayev's family career path did not appeal: from a young age, he became ill with theater. He participated in school productions and even appeared in one of the TV shows of the Chisinau television studio. The way forward was clear for him: in 1965, after graduating from Chisinau school No. 4 (now the Titu Maiorescu Lyceum), he went to Moscow to enroll in GITIS.

The Chisinau teenager had no connections or acquaintances in the capital's theatrical environment. Nevertheless, to everyone's surprise, he independently entered the university on the first attempt and successfully graduated five years later with a degree in Theater and Cinema Actor.

In 1970, after graduating from university, he joined the Pushkin Theater as an actor, where he served for five years. Little by little, the imposing young actor began receiving offers for filming. So, he played a young stoker, who later became a machinist, in the film "Big Stretches" with the great Nikolai Kryuchkov. Soon he had several more cameo roles waiting for him, including in the famous TV movie "Walking through Torment". However, he was not destined to become a movie star — television was waiting for a born showman.

The morning postman

Nikolaev started working on television in 1973. And in 1975, the Central Television Station announced the recruitment of announcers — and the aspiring actor decided to try himself at random. The message of the famous Igor Kirillov that he had passed the selection, according to Nikolaev himself, amazed him. However, he decided to change professions — mainly, as Nikolaev himself said, for financial reasons: the salary of the announcer was more than twice the income of an aspiring actor.

Almost immediately, Nikolaev received an offer to host the Morning Mail television program. The music program aired at an advantageous time — late Saturday morning — but for a long time it did not have its own face. Luck smiled on Nikolaevs: the audience received him with delight. He became a star overnight.

In those years, Nikolayev's popularity grew every day: his talent as a showman came in handy on television. He hosted "Blue Lights," "Song of the Year," and received mountains of letters and confessions from female fans. Nikolaev remained the host of the Morning Post until 1991.

In modern times

The collapse of the USSR ended Nikolayev's career in the Morning Post. However, unlike many Soviet-era stars, Yuri Nikolaev has retained a permanent position on television, which for almost two decades has become his second home. In 1991, he founded and headed the production company "UNIX" ("Yuri Nikolaev Studio", which for several years has released many extremely popular TV programs on the screens of new Russia. The main one was the TV show "Morning Star", which opened up new stars for the Russian pop scene. For several years, a whole group of performers went through Yuri Nikolaev's show, who later won places at the top of the Soviet stage. Among them were Valeria, Sergey Lazarev, Yulia Nachalova, the Lyceum group, Angelica Varum, Pelageya and even 11-year-old Julia Peresild.

Yuri Nikolaev remained the host of "Morning Stars" from 1991 to 2003. Subsequently, he joined the Rossiya channel, where he hosted such popular TV shows as Big Change, Dancing on Ice, and Dancing with the Stars... Nikolaev never disappointed the audience, remaining witty, charming and easy to communicate with both ordinary people and stars. But the years were already beginning to take their toll: in the 2000s, the famous TV presenter increasingly began to worry about health problems. At first, he tried to ignore them, habitually leading an active lifestyle — playing lawn tennis, mountain skiing, billiards. But the problems progressed, and Mykolaiv had to pay attention to them.

The "first Bell" rang in the midst of the Dancing on Ice show. Nikolaevich was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm and underwent surgery, so he had to go out on ice in a corset and regularly inject painkillers. Then Nikolayev was diagnosed with bowel cancer, then lung cancer. According to the TV presenter, it was not easy to accept the diagnoses — but he forbade himself to feel sorry for himself by force of will and continued to live in the usual rhythm. He hosted the TV program "The Heritage of the Republic", published a book of memoirs "Everything is fair here", and simultaneously underwent the necessary treatment. But the disease did not recede.

Recently, his malaise has worsened, and in early November he sought medical help. On November 4, he was diagnosed with severe pneumonia and was urgently hospitalized in the capital's Yudin Hospital. Despite all the efforts, the doctors could not help: in the evening, Yuri Nikolaev died at the age of 77.