THE Mime (Marcel Marceau) Has Died
BBC: French mime artist Marceau dies
The French mime artist Marcel Marceau has died at the age of 84, his family has announced.
The performer was known around the world for his portrayal of a white-faced clown with battered hat.
Born in Strasbourg in 1923, Marceau studied under mime master Etienne Decroux in Paris.
His daughter Camille said he died on Saturday evening, adding that details of the burial at Paris’s Pere Lachaise cemetery would be given out later.
Silent films
Marceau, whose real name was Marcel Mangel, became world famous for his 1947 creation of Bip, the sad, white-faced clown in a striped jumper and a battered silk opera hat.
Mime artist Corinne Soum-Wasson, who was a friend of Marceau’s, told the BBC he was an “extraordinary person”.
Marceau was born Marcel Mangel in the Alsatian town of Strasbourg on 22 March 1923.
He was brought up in Lille, where his Jewish father was a butcher.
When World War II came to France, his father was captured and sent by the invading Nazis to Auschwitz, where he died. In 1944 Marceau joined his elder brother in the Resistance, later joining the French Army.
