The Director was passionately fond of gambling. He loved to play cards, went crazy at the slot machines. Close friends, relatives and colleagues, remembering Leonid Gaidai, told.

One of the most favorite Soviet Directors, the unrivalled master of Comedy Leonid Gaidai would have turned 95 years old on January 30. He took pictures that viewers know by heart the replicas of his films dismantled on the aphorisms, and the filming of his Comedy “the diamond arm”, or perhaps “Ivan Vasilyevich changes occupation” have become tourist attractions. Actors who starred in Gaidai, became absolute stars, images = textbook, and the names of the characters – a household name. And even tiny episodes of his Comedy was so cleverly shot that “went to the people.” For example, a small scene of “Operation “y” and other adventures Shurik”, in which the student and teacher Institute was almost played cards. A real young player to “21” and suddenly the Professor offers to take “his”, as well as in the famous game.

The actor who plays the role of a student, Valery Nosik, in recognition of the son of actor Alexander Nosik, cards not played at all. But Leonid Gaidai, by contrast, was a gambler and loved this form of entertainment. This was told by his daughter Oksana in the documentary of the First channel “the Diamond you ours. The 95th anniversary of Leonid Gaidai”.

“When I was preparing for graduation, sitting in the night, learn something. But dad was a night owl, at night sat and read. And here he is knocking in my room and asks, do you want to relax? With pleasure, I answer. We played for hours…” – said Oksana Gaidai.

However, Gaidai liked not only to play cards, but also fond of other gambling. For example, he loved the slot machines of the type “one-armed bandit”. In the film “good weather In Deribasovskaya or Brighton beach again it rains” directed himself in the episode. Security guards on hand carried out of the casino a crazy player with a torn arm from the “one-armed bandit”. Arcady Inin, the writer and co-author of UNESCO, recalled that the Director himself almost crazy, being in a huge gaming hall in America, where they filmed the movie.

“When we arrived at the casino the “Taj Mahal”, Gaidai just, to put it mildly, crazy. In Moscow at that time was 2 machine, and there are thousands, the ringing, lights, all the flashes. Gaidai was thrilled!”- said Arkady Yining.

However, apparently gambling, had no effect neither on welfare nor on the health of Leonid Gaidai. The Director died in 1993 at the age of 70 years after long-term inflammation of the lungs had a clot in the pulmonary artery.