MARCEAU, MARCEL

MARCEAU, MARCEL (1923– ), French mime. Marceau was born in Strasbourg, the son of a butcher who was executed by the Nazis during World War II. Marceau worked for the French underground, helping Jewish children to cross the border into Switzerland. In 1944, he entered Charles Dullin's School of Dramatic Art and studied with Etienne Decroux (1898–1991). He made his début as Harlequin in Jean-Louis Barrault's production of Baptiste in 1947. That same year he formed his own company and created his famous character "Bip," a flour-faced clown always in conflict with the physical world. He wrote The Story of Bip, which was published in 1976, and celebrated Bip's 50th anniversary in 1997. Marceau, who is the best-known exponent of modern mime, toured either as a solo artist or with a small company in many parts of the world. In his U.S. tours in 1955–56 and 2000 he also made many television appearances. His silent eloquence and unique synthesis of corporeal mime with 19th century pantomime captured the public's imagination wherever he appeared. Most of Marceau's programs consisted of small sketches featuring "Bip," but in 1951 he created an extended drama, The Overcoat, based on the novel by Gogol. He also made a number of films. In 1971 he collaborated with the Hamburg Ballet on a version of Candide. Marceau described mime as "the art of expressing feelings by attitudes and not a means of expressing words through gestures." In 1998, French President Jacques Chirac named Marceau a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit. He was elected a member of the Academies of Fine Arts in Berlin and Munich, the Academie of Beaux Arts in France, and the Institut de France. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Y. Karsh, Portraits of Greatness (1959), 124; B. Martin, Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime (1979). (Selma Jeanne Cohen / Amnon Shiloah (2nd ed.)