Marcel Marceau

Actor, Film actor

1923 – 2007

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Who was Marcel Marceau?

Marcel Marceau was an internationally acclaimed French actor and mime most famous for his stage persona as "Bip the Clown." He referred to mime as the "art of silence," and he performed professionally worldwide for over 60 years. As a youth, he lived in hiding and worked with the French Resistance during most of World War II, giving his first major performance to 3000 troops after the liberation of Paris in August of 1944. Following the war, he studied dramatic art and mime in Paris.

In 1959 he established his own pantomime school in Paris, and subsequently set up the Marceau Foundation to promote the art in the U.S. Among his various awards and honors, he was made "Grand Officer de la Legion d'Honneur" and was awarded the National Order of Merit in France. He won the Emmy Award for his work on television, was elected member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, and was declared a "National treasure" in Japan. He was friends with Michael Jackson for nearly 20 years, and Jackson said he would use some of Marceau's techniques in his own dance steps.

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Born
Mar 22, 1923
Strasbourg
Also known as
  • Marcel Mangel
  • Bip the Clown
  • Le Mime Marceau
Parents
Siblings
Spouses
Children
Religion
  • Judaism
Ethnicity
  • Jewish people
  • French people
Nationality
  • France
Profession
Lived in
  • Strasbourg
  • Limoges
  • Lille
Died
Sep 22, 2007
Cahors
Resting place
Père Lachaise Cemetery

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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"Marcel Marceau." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/marcel_marceau>.

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