The famous actress found herself in a funny situation.
Nina Grebeshkova rarely got the main roles. Despite her marriage to director Leonid Gaidai, she played mostly cameos in her husband’s films. But every appearance of the artist on the screen was bright and talented. The audience especially remembered her role in the comedy “The Diamond Arm.”
Grebeshkova dreamed of playing the house manager, but her husband refused his faithful companion and chose the colorful Nonna Mordyukova. Instead, she was asked to portray Nadya, Gorbunkov’s wife, on screen. The actress got used to the character so much that the audience believed that she and Yuri Nikulin were married in real life.
The myth was so entrenched among ordinary Soviet people that the poor woman was accused of abandoning the public’s favorite for Gaidai. Nina Pavlovna recalls that one day a stranger approached her and asked defiantly:
“How could you leave the artist Nikulin for the director Gaidai?!”
