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Dateline: 24th September, 2007
Marcel Marceau (1923 - 2007) French mime Marcel Marceau, regarded as the greatest contemporary mime artist, has died at the age of 84. Born Marcel Mangel in Strasbourg, he was the son of a Jewish butcher who died in Auschwitz. In 1944 Marceau joined the Resistance (of which his brother was already a member) and later the French army. As a teenager he had been fascinated by the stars of the slient film and used to dress up as Charlie Chaplin and mimic him. In 1946 he began to study acting under Etienne Decroux snd made his first film, Les Enfants du Paradis, in 1947. In it he played Arlequin and so began his career as a mime artist. He formed his own company in 1948 and toured Europe until 1959 when it closed because of financial problems. By this time he had made a further three films - Pantomimes (1954), Un jardin public (1954) and Die Schone Lugnerin (1959) and went on to make nine more, the last (Joseph's Gift) in 1998. His most film famous appearance was in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie in which he had the only speaking line -"Non!" which he said when refusing a role in the silent film. His most famous creation was the white-face clown Bip, which he created in 1947. In 1984 he set up the Ecole Internationale de Mimodrame in Paris. He was awarded the Légion d'Honneur, numerous honorary degrees and was appointed UN goodwill ambassador for a 2002 conference on aging.
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