Artists Efim Berezin and Yuri Timoshenko is a duet that was familiar to every Soviet citizen. Even during the Great Patriotic War, they acted in the images of the bath attendant Mochalkin (played by Tymoshenko) and a cook named Galkin (performed by Berezin). When the war ended, they created new images for themselves: Berezin became a installer of Shtepsel, and Tymoshenko became a funny policeman Tarapunka. The pair-entertainer grew into variety shows with heroes with funny names - Tarapunka and Plug.
The best performances and films of the creative duet
“A concert”, “Exactly 20 with a hook”, “They drove the stage for a decade”, “From and to” and other performances were very popular with the audience. Comedies with famous characters appeared, and the artists were directors, screenwriters, and leading actors in the films “Tarapunka and the Plug under the clouds” (filmed in 1953), “The Adventure with the Tarapunki Jacket” (1955), the famous “Plug” Marries Tarapunku ”(1957). And the film "The ridiculous adventures of Tarapunka and Plugs" has become a truly Soviet classic. They starred in the films "Merry Stars", "We rode, rode ...", "Easy Life".
Grateful spectators wrote letters to them from all over the country with an address on envelopes: "Where - Moscow, the Kremlin; to whom - to Tarapunka and Plugs." In letters, they were not only thanked, but also wrote complaints about bureaucratic arbitrariness, asked to criticize defective goods and even return husbands to the family.
Plug and Tarapunka in real life
On the stage, Tymoshenko and Berezin were perceived by everyone as a single and indivisible organism - Plug and Tarapunk, photos with them both decorated postcards and covers of Soviet magazines. But in reality, the actors were the exact opposite of each other. Yuriy Tymoshenko was a kind of enthusiastic, unbalanced, with an explosive temperament, a big child who loves to eat bagels with milk. If asked about the nationality of Berezin, he could hit the questioner. When Tymoshenko was somehow asked why he and his colleague and friend are still not in the party, he said: "Drive out all the scum from the party, and we will come to you." Berezin, on the contrary, is restrained, calm and reasonable, a wonderful family man, excluding any adventures. Tymoshenko was carried away violently and quickly, whether it be women or brands. He could drop everything and fly to Siberia for some extremely rare brand, he could take day and night to learn English and learn it in three months.
Lifelong friendship
The brain center in the duet was Yefim Berezin, who knew not only the remarks of his character, but also the remarks of Tymoshenko, who often forgot them, so during the performance he often gave the following prompts: “You seem to want to ask me? ..” When Yury Tymoshenko was buried, Efim Berezin said over a friend’s tomb: “I wanted to say so much, but for the first time in my life I forgot the text.” Their unique friendship in life and on stage, their amazing union “Tarapunka and Plugs” lasted as long as fifty years. Both studied at the Kiev Theater Institute, both during the war went from Kiev to Berlin. When the war ended, both went to the capital to the All-Union competition of pop artists. Having become laureates, until the very end of their creative and life path, friends did not part.
Achievements of great actors
It was said that Tymoshenko even at first refused to be awarded the title of Honored Artist, saying: "Either two, or nobody." The title was assigned to both. People’s artists of Ukraine, they, too, became two, and they didn’t give them the national artists of the USSR. Twice the famous duet was nominated for the award of an honorary title, and both times all documents for the performance disappeared in an incomprehensible way. Upon learning that they were gathering documents for the title of People’s Artist for the third time, Tymoshenko categorically stated: “Enough is enough for us. We don’t want anymore. We have titles - "Tarapunka and Plug". ” And still their names are remembered by all the people who lived in the USSR.