Marcel Marceau (born Marcel Mangel) (March 22, 1923 – September 22, 2007) was a well-known
mime artist, among the most popular representatives of this art form world-wide.
Early life and training
Marcel Mangel was born in Strasbourg, France, the son of Anne (née Werzberg) and Charles Mangel.[1] When he was 16, his Jewish family was forced to flee from its home to
Limoges when France entered the Second World War. He and
his brother Alain later joined Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces and, due to his excellent English, he worked as a liaison officer with
General Patton's army.[2] His father, a kosher butcher, was arrested by the Gestapo and died in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. Marcel was married and divorced three times: the
first to Huguette Mallet by which he had two sons, Michel and Baptiste, the second to Ella Jaroszewicz and the third to Anne
Sicco by which he had two daughters, Camille and Aurélia.[3]
After having seen Charlie Chaplin, Marcel became an actor. After the war, he enrolled
in 1946 as a student in Charles Dullin's School of Dramatic
Art in the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris, where he studied with teachers like Charles Dullin and the great master, Étienne Decroux, who had also taught Jean-Louis Barrault.
Marceau joined Barrault's company[4] and was soon cast in
the role of Arlequin in the pantomime, 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 unanimous and Marceau's career as a mime was firmly established.
Career and signature characters
In 1947, Marceau created "Bip" the clown, who in his striped pullover and battered, beflowered
silk opera hat — signifying the fragility of life — has become his alter ego, even as Chaplin's "Little Tramp" became that star's
major personality. Bip's misadventures with everything from butterflies to lions, on ships and trains, in dance-halls or
restaurants, were limitless. As a style pantomime, Marceau was acknowledged without peer. His silent exercises, which include
such classic works as The Cage, Walking Against the Wind, The Mask Maker, and In The Park, as well as
satires on everything from sculptors to matadors, were 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
cannot 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-Elysees, Le Theatre de la Renaissance, and the Sarah
Bernhardt, as well as other playhouses throughout the world. From 1959 to 1960, a retrospective of his mimodramas, including the famous The
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).
World recognition
Marceau performed all over the world in order to spread the "art of silence" (L'art du silence). He first toured the
United States in 1955 and 1956, close on the heels of his North American debut at the Stratford Festival of Canada. 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, D.C., Philadelphia,
Los Angeles, and other major cities. His extensive transcontinental tours
included South America, Africa, Australia, China, Japan, South East Asia, Russia, and Europe. His last world tour covered the
United States in 2004, and returned to Europe in 2005 and
Australia in 2006.
Marceau's art became familiar to millions 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 teamed with Red Skelton in three concerts of pantomimes.
Marceau also showed his versatility in motion pictures such as First Class, in which he played 17 roles, Shanks,
where he combined his silent art, playing a deaf and mute puppeteer, and his speaking talent, as a mad scientist; as Professor
Ping in Barbarella, and a cameo as himself in Mel
Brooks' Silent Movie, in which, with purposeful irony, he is the only actor
with a speaking part that picks up on the soundtrack, uttering the single word "Non!" when Brooks asks him (subtitled) if he
would participate in the film. He also had a role in a low-budget film roughly based on his life story called Paint It
White. The film was never completed because another actor in the movie, a life-long friend with whom he had attended school,
died halfway through shooting.
As an author, Marceau published two books for children, the Marcel Marceau Alphabet Book and the Marcel Marceau
Counting Book, and poetry and illustrations, including La ballade de Paris et du Monde (The Ballad of Paris and of
the World), an art book which he wrote in 1966, and The Story of Bip, written and illustrated
by Marceau and published by Harper and Row. In 1982, Le Troisième Oeil, (The Third
Eye), his collection of ten original lithographs, was published in Paris with an accompanying text by Marceau. Belfond of
Paris published Pimporello in 1987. In 2001, a new photo book for
children titled Bip in a Book, published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, appeared in the bookstores in the US, France and
Australia.
In 1978, Marceau established his own school in Paris: École Internationale de Mimodrame de
Paris, Marcel Marceau (International School of Mimodrame of Paris, Marcel Marceau). In 1996, he established the Marceau
Foundation to promote mime in the United States.
In 1995, vocalist, dancer, choreographer and mime Michael
Jackson and Marceau conceived a concert for HBO, but the project was never completed. In
2000, Marceau brought his full mime company to New York City for presentation of his new mimodrama,
The Bowler Hat, previously seen in Paris, London, Tokyo, Taipei, Caracas, Santo Domingo, Valencia (Venezuela) and Munich.
From 1999, when Marceau returned with his classic solo show to New York and San Francisco after 15-year absences for
critically-acclaimed sold out runs, his career in America enjoyed a remarkable renaissance with strong appeal to a third
generation. He latterly appeared to overwhelming acclaim for extended engagements at such legendary American theaters as The
Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, demonstrating the timeless appeal of the work and the mastery of
this unique artist.
Marceau's new full company production Les Contes Fantastiques (Fantasy Tales) opened to great acclaim at the
Theatre Antoine in Paris.
Acclaim and honors
The French Government conferred upon Marceau its highest honor, making him an "Officier de la Légion d'honneur", and in 1978 he received the Medaille Vermeil de la Ville de Paris. In
November 1998, President Chirac named Marceau a Grand Officer of the Order of
Merit; and he was an elected member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, the
Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, the
Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de
France. The City of Paris awarded him a grant, which enabled him to reopen his International School, which offered a
three-year curriculum.
Marceau held honorary doctorates from Ohio State University, Linfield College, Princeton University and the
University of Michigan.
Marceau has been declared a "national treasure" by Japan. [citation needed]
In 1999 New York City declared March 18 to be Marcel Marceau Day.
Marceau accepted the honor and responsibilities of serving as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Second World Assembly on Aging, which took place in Madrid,
Spain, in April 2002.
Death
Marceau passed away on September 22, 2007. He died of a heart attack in his house of Cahors (France); he was 84. He was buried
at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris,
France. He was honoured with two minutes of silence, a particularly appropriate gesture
considering how many people around the world found joy in Marceau's conspicuously silent art form.
Films
Marcel Marceau at the Internet Movie Database
Writings
Influence
- Marceau's Creation of the World, a retelling of the first two chapters of Genesis is, in part, recreated by Axel Jodorowsky in Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1989 film Santa Sangre. Both father
and son Jodorowsky had worked with Marceau.
- Michael Jackson's "moonwalk" dance was
inspired by Marceau's Walking Against the Wind routine.[5]
- Japan's Maruse Taro was greatly influenced by Marceau, and his mimer's name is derived from that of Marceau[citation needed].
- A mime similar to Marceau appeared in the 1991 Dwight Yoakam video "It Only Hurts When
I Cry".
- Nick Cave's band Grinderman refers to Marceau in their
song "No Pussy Blues": "I felt like Marcel Marceau must feel when she said that she just never wanted to"
- The fluid movements of Liquid Dancing and Popping
can be traced to the influence of Marcel Marceau and pantomime theater.
References
External links
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