In 1925 the family moved to Moscow. They lived in a communal house in Tokmakov Lane, not far from Razgulyai Square (the house has not survived). The first seven grades Nikulin studied in an exemplary school № 349, where frequent guests were famous writers, in particular, Arkady Gaidar. In the eighth grade moved to high school № 346. November 18, 1939, after graduating from high school, at the age of 18 years old was drafted into the Red Army and sent to the sixth battery of the second division of the 115th anti-aircraft artillery regiment. During the Soviet-Finnish war this anti-aircraft battery was located near Sestroretsk and guarded the air approaches to Leningrad. In the Great Patriotic War he fought near Leningrad first in the same regiment, in the spring of 1943, after a contusion and treatment in hospital he was transferred to the 72nd separate anti-aircraft artillery division as commander of the reconnaissance section, later there he became an assistant platoon commander Victory met in Courland, another year served in East Prussia, was demobilized on May 18, 1946 with the rank of senior sergeant. During the war he was awarded the medals "For bravery" (originally was presented to the Order of Glory, III degree), "For the Defense of Leningrad" and "For Victory over Germany".
After the end of the war he tried to enter the VGIK, where he was not accepted, as the chairman of the commission Sergei Yutkevich did not find in him acting abilities. After the failure he wanted to enter GITIS at the theater faculty. But the chairman of the commission S. Gushansky also did not find in the young man acting talent. In the end he entered the school-studio of conversational genres at the Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard and graduated in 1948. His first performance on the arena was on October 25, 1948 in a pair with Boris Romanov in the reprise "The sitter and the hacker". Then he began to work as an assistant together with the then popular clown Pencil. Working with him, met Mikhail Shuidin. Together with Pencil, the actor himself and Shuidin repeatedly went on tour around the country and gained circus experience. After working with Pencil two and a half years, in 1950, Shuidin and the actor himself together left him because of a labor conflict. Having started working independently, they made up the famous clown duo Nikulin and Shuidin, although in character the artists were quite different.
Debuted in the cinema in 1958 in a cameo role of a pyrotechnician in the film "Girl with a Guitar".
Author of the book "Almost Seriously..." (1979).
He stopped performing in the circus when he turned 60, in 1981, and moved to the post of chief director of the circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. Since 1982 he has been the director and artistic director of the Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. Under him a completely new building was built for the circus, which was opened on September 29, 1989. In total, he worked in the circus for about 50 years.
In the mid-1990s, he was a member of the editorial board of the magazine "Ogonyok".
Since 1992 - chairman of the Peace Foundation.
For many years of creative activity, the artist played more than thirty roles in films
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