Actors - Marcel Marceau

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	Actors - Marcel Marceau

Marcel Marceau (born March 22, 1923) is a well-known mime and among the most popular representatives of this art form world-wide.

He was born Marcel Mangel in Strasbourg, France. After having seen Charlie Chaplin, he became interested in acting and from 1946 on he studied at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris with teachers like Charles Dullin and Étienne Decroux (who was also the teacher of Jean-Louis Barrault).

At 15, his Jewish family was forced to flee their home as France entered the Second World War. He later joined Charles De Gaulle's Free French Forces and, because of his excellent English, worked as a liaison officer with General Patton's army.

In 1946, he enrolled as a student in Charles Dullin's School of Dramatic Art in the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris, where he studied with the great master, Etienne Decroux, who had also taught Jean-Louis Barrault. The latter noticed Marceau's exceptional talent, made him a member of his company, and cast him in the role of Arlequin in the pantomime entitled Baptiste - which Barrault himself had interpreted in the world famous film Les Enfants du Paradis. Marceau's performance won him such acclaim that he was encouraged to present his first "mimodrama", called "Praxitele and the Golden Fish," at the Bernhardt Theatre that same year. The acclaim was so unanimous that Marceau's career as a mime was firmly established.

In 1947, Marceau created "Bip", the clown who in his striped pullover and battered, deflowered opera hat, has become his alter-ego, even as Chaplin's "Little Tramp" became that star's personality. Bip's misadventures with everything from butterflies to lions, on ships and trains, in dance-halls or restaurants, are limitless.

As a style pantomime, Marceau has been acknowledged without peer. His silent exercises, which include such classic works at The Cage, Walking Against the Wind, The Mask Maker, and In The Park, and satires on everything from sculptors to matadors, have been described as works of genius. Of his summation of the ages of man in the famous Youth, Maturity, Old Age and Death, one critic said, "He accomplishes in less than two minutes what most novelists can not do in volumes."

In 1949, following his receipt of the renowned Deburau Prize (established as a memorial to the 19th century mime master Jean-Gaspard Deburau) for his second mimodrama, "Death before Dawn," Marceau formed his Compagnie de Mime Marcel Marceau - the only company of pantomime in the world at the time. The ensemble played the leading Paris theaters - Le Theatre des Champs-Elyees, Le Theatre de la Renaissance, and the Sarah Bernhardt, as well as other playhouses throughout the world. During the 1959-60, a retrospective of his mimodramas, including the famous Overcoat by Gogol, ran for a full year at the Amibigu Theatre in Paris. He has produced 15 other mimodramas, including Pierrot de Montmartre, The 3 Wigs, The Pawn Shop, 14th July, The Wolf of Tsu Ku Mi, Paris Cries--Paris Laughs, and Don Juan - adapted from the Spanish writer Tirso de Molina.

He first toured the United States in 1955-56, close on the heels of his North American debut at the Stratford (Ontario) Festival. After his opening engagement at the Phoenix Theater in New York, which received rave reviews, he moved to the larger Barrymore Theater to accommodate the public demand. This first US tour ended with a record breaking return to standing room only crowds in San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and other major cities. His extensive transcontinental tours have included South America, Africa, Australia, China, Japan, South East Asia, Russia and Europe.

Marceau's art has become familiar to millions of Americans through his many television appearances. His first television performance as a star performer on the Max Liebman Show of Shows won him the television industry's coveted Emmy award. He appeared on the BBC as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol in 1973. He was a favorite guest of Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas and Dinah Shore, and he also had his own one-man show entitled "Meet Marcel Marceau."

He has also shown his versatility in motion pictures, such as First Class in which he portrayed 17 different roles, Shanks where he combined his silent art, playing a deaf and mute puppeteer, and his speaking talent, as a mad scientist, and Mel Brooks' Silent Movie
(see below). A further example of Marceau's multiple talents was the mimodrama Candide, which he created for the Ballet company of the Hamburg Opera. He directed this work and also performed the title role.

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