Marcel Marceau, master of mime

PARIS – Marcel Marceau, the master of mime who transformed silence into poetry with artful gestures that spoke to young and old around the world, has died after 60 years on the stage.

He was 84. Marceau, who breathed new life into an art that dates to ancient Greece, died on Saturday in Paris.Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower, Marceau, through his alter-ego Bip, played out the human comedy without ever uttering a word.Offstage, he was famously chatty.”Never get a mime talking.He won’t stop,” he once said.With his lithe gestures and pliant facial expressions, Marceau gave life to a wide spectrum of characters, from a peevish waiter to a lion tamer to an old woman knitting and, of course, to the best-known, Bip.A French Jew who, unlike his father, escaped deportation to a Nazi death camp during World War II, Marceau worked with the French Resistance to protect Jewish children, and later used the memories of his own life to feed his art.Marceau single-handedly revived the art of mime, which dates to antiquity and continued until the 19th century through the Italian Commedia dell’Arte, or improvised theatre.His biggest inspiration was Charlie Chaplin.Marceau, in turn, inspired countless young performers – Michael Jackson borrowed his famous “moonwalk” from a Marceau sketch, ‘Walking Against the Wind’.In one of his most poignant and philosophical acts, ‘Youth, Maturity, Old Age, Death’, Marceau wordlessly showed the passing of an entire life in just minutes.He took his art to stages across the world, performing in Asia, Europe and the United States, his “second country”, where he first appeared in 1955 and returned every two years.He took his art to Cuba for the first time in September 2005.”France loses one of its most eminent ambassadors,” said a statement by President Nicolas Sarkozy.Prime Minister Francois Fillon praised Marceau as “the master” with the rare gift of “being able to communicate with each and everyone beyond the barriers of language.”The son of a butcher, he was born Marcel Mangel on March 22 1923, in Strasbourg, France.He fled with some family members to the southwest when the Nazis marched into eastern France during World War II, and changed his last name to Marceau to hide his Jewish origins.With his brother Alain, Marceau became active in the French Resistance, altering children’s identity cards by changing birth dates to trick the Nazis into thinking they were too young to be deported.Because he spoke English, he was recruited to be a liaison officer with General George S Patton’s army.However, his father Charles, whose love of music helped plant the seeds for Marceau’s craft, was caught in the Nazi net and in 1944 sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he died.The sombre experiences were reflected in some of Marceau’s later work.Even the character Bip, who chased butterflies in his debut, took on the grand themes of humanity.Charles, a baritone with a love of song, had introduced his son to the world of music and theatre at an early age.The boy was captivated by the silent film stars of the era: Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Marx brothers.Marcel’s life as a performer began with the liberation of Paris from the Nazis.He enrolled in Charles Dullin’s School of Dramatic Art, studying with the renowned mime Etienne Decroux.On a tiny stage at the Theatre de Poche, a smoke-filled Left Bank cabaret, he sought to perfect the style of mime that would become his trademark.Bip – Marceau’s on-stage persona – was born in 1947.Marceau once said that Bip was his alter ego, a sad-faced double whose eyes lit up with childlike wonder as he discovered the world.Bip was a direct descendant of the 19th-century harlequin, but his clownish gestures, Marceau said, were inspired in part by Chaplin and Keaton.Marceau likened his character to a modern-day Don Quixote, “alone in a fragile world filled with injustice and beauty”.Dressed in a white sailor suit, a top hat – a red rose perched on top – Bip covered the gamut of human experience, and emotion, from going to war to running a matrimonial service.In one famous sketch, ‘Public Garden’, Marceau played all the characters in a park, from little boys playing ball to old women with knitting needles.In 1949, Marceau’s newly formed mime troupe was the only one of its kind in Europe.But it was only after a hugely successful tour across the United States in the mid-1950s that Marceau received the acclaim that would make him an international star.”I have a feeling that I did for mime what (Andres) Segovia did for the guitar, what (Pablo) Casals did for the cello,” he once told The Associated Press in an interview.Marceau started his own company, then in 1978 the International School of Mime-Drama.In the past decades, he took Bip from Mexico to China to Australia.He also made film appearances.The most famous was Mel Brooks’ 1976 film ‘Silent Movie’, in which he had the only line of dialogue: “Non!” A perforated ulcer nearly killed Marceau in the Soviet Union in December 1985.He was rushed home to Paris in critical condition, but bounced back to the stage five months later.As he aged, Marceau kept performing, never losing the agility that made him famous.On top of his Legion of Honour and his countless honorary degrees, he was invited to be a United Nations goodwill ambassador for a 2002 conference on aging.”If you stop at all when you are 70 or 80, you cannot go on,” he told the AP in an interview in 2003.”You have to keep working.”Nampa-APMarceau, who breathed new life into an art that dates to ancient Greece, died on Saturday in Paris.Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower, Marceau, through his alter-ego Bip, played out the human comedy without ever uttering a word.Offstage, he was famously chatty.”Never get a mime talking.He won’t stop,” he once said.With his lithe gestures and pliant facial expressions, Marceau gave life to a wide spectrum of characters, from a peevish waiter to a lion tamer to an old woman knitting and, of course, to the best-known, Bip.A French Jew who, unlike his father, escaped deportation to a Nazi death camp during World War II, Marceau worked with the French Resistance to protect Jewish children, and later used the memories of his own life to feed his art.Marceau single-handedly revived the art of mime, which dates to antiquity and continued until the 19th century through the Italian Commedia dell’Arte, or improvised theatre.His biggest inspiration was Charlie Chaplin.Marceau, in turn, inspired countless young performers – Michael Jackson borrowed his famous “moonwalk” from a Marceau sketch, ‘Walking Against the Wind’.In one of his most poignant and philosophical acts, ‘Youth, Maturity, Old Age, Death’, Marceau wordlessly showed the passing of an entire life in just minutes.He took his art to stages across the world, performing in Asia, Europe and the United States, his “second country”, where he first appeared in 1955 and returned every two years.He took his art to Cuba for the first time in September 2005.”France loses one of its most eminent ambassadors,” said a statement by President Nicolas Sarkozy.Prime Minister Francois Fillon praised Marceau as “the master” with the rare gift of “being able to communicate with each and everyone beyond the barriers of language.”The son of a butcher, he was born Marcel Mangel on March 22 1923, in Strasbourg, France.He fled with some family members to the southwest when the Nazis marched into eastern France during World War II, and changed his last name to Marceau to hide his Jewish origins.With his brother Alain, Marceau became active in the French Resistance, altering children’s identity cards by changing birth dates to trick the Nazis into thinking they were too young to be deported.Because he spoke English, he was recruited to be a liaison officer with General George S Patton’s army.However, his father Charles, whose love of music helped plant the seeds for Marceau’s craft, was caught in the Nazi net and in 1944 sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he died.The sombre experiences were reflected in some of Marceau’s later work.Even the character Bip, who chased butterflies in his debut, took on the grand themes of humanity.Charles, a baritone with a love of song, had introduced his son to the world of music and theatre at an early age.The boy was captivated by the silent film stars of the era: Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Marx brothers.Marcel’s life as a performer began with the liberation of Paris from the Nazis.He enrolled in Charles Dullin’s School of Dramatic Art, studying with the renowned mime Etienne Decroux.On a tiny stage at the Theatre de Poche, a smoke-filled Left Bank cabaret, he sought to perfect the style of mime that would become his trademark.Bip – Marceau’s on-stage persona – was born in 1947.Marceau once said that Bip was his alter ego, a sad-faced double whose eyes lit up with childlike wonder as he discovered the world.Bip was a direct descendant of the 19th-century harlequin, but his clownish gestures, Marceau said, were inspired in part by Chaplin and Keaton.Marceau likened his character to a modern-day Don Quixote, “alone in a fragile world filled with injustice and beauty”.Dressed in a white sailor suit, a top hat – a red rose perched on top – Bip covered the gamut of human experience, and emotion, from going to war to running a matrimonial service.In one famous sketch, ‘Public Garden’, Marceau played all the characters in a park, from little boys playing ball to old women with knitting needles.In 1949, Marceau’s newly formed mime troupe was the only one of its kind in Europe.But it was only after a hugely successful tour across the United States in the mid-1950s that Marceau received the acclaim that would make him an international star.”I have a feeling that I did for mime what (Andres) Segovia did for the guitar, what (Pablo) Casals did for the cello,” he once told The Associated Press in an interview.Marceau started his own company, then in 1978 the International School of Mime-Drama.In the past decades, he took Bip from Mexico to China to Australia.He also made film appearances.The most famous was Mel Brooks’ 1976 film ‘Silent Movie’, in which he had the only line of dialogue: “Non!” A perforated ulcer nearly killed Marceau in the Soviet Union in December 1985.He was rushed home to Paris in critical condition, but bounced back to the stage five months later.As he aged, Marceau kept performing, never losing the agility that made him famous.On top of his Legion of Honour and his countless honorary degrees, he was invited to be a United Nations goodwill ambassador for a 2002 conference on aging.”If you stop at all when you are 70 or 80, you cannot go on,” he told the AP in an interview in 2003.”You have to keep working.”Nampa-AP