He was the world's best-known mime artist: Who is Marcel Marceau?

After his father was captured and killed by the Nazis occupying France during World War II, Marceau joined the resistance movement in 1944. As a Jewish teenager, he spent most of World War II in hiding. He later joined the French resistance. He saved the lives of thousands of Jews by taking them out of France.

By David Foster Published on 17 Mayıs 2024 : 11:52.
He was the world's best-known mime artist: Who is Marcel Marceau?

Marcel Marceau, the master of silent art, was born in 1923 in the Alsatian town of Strasbourg. Marceau then went to Lille, where his father was a butcher.

After his father was captured and killed by the Nazis occupying France during World War II, Marceau joined the resistance movement in 1944.

Marcel Marceau (22 March 1923 – 22 September 2007) was a French mime artist and actor most famous for his stage persona, "Bip the Clown". He referred to mime as the "art of silence", performing professionally worldwide for more than 60 years. As a Jewish youth, he lived in hiding and worked with the French Resistance during most of World War II, giving his first major performance to 3,000 troops after the liberation of Paris in August. Following the war, he studied dramatic art and mime in Paris.

Marceau later joined the French Army and served in the Allied Army in Germany until the war ended.

Marceau, who started his art studies in 1946, took lessons from the great mime teacher Etienne Decroux and became known for his famous character called "Beep".

Marceau, who won the admiration of art lovers all over the world with the funny and tragic characters he portrayed for decades, said: “Mime, like music, knows neither borders nor countries. "If laughter and tears are the character of humanity, all cultures are steeped in our teachings," he said.

Marcel Marceau was one of the most important mime artists of the art world. He gained worldwide fame as 'Bip the Clown' on stage. As a Jewish teenager, he spent most of World War II in hiding. He later joined the French resistance. He saved the lives of thousands of Jews by taking them out of France. He gave his first big performance to 3,000 soldiers after the liberation of Paris in August 1944. After the war, he rose to the heights of dramatic art and mime art.

The world's most famous pantomime artist, Frenchman Marcel Marceau, died at the age of 84. 

Marceau died on September 22, 2007, at the age of 84, in a nursing home in Cahors, France. The second movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 was played at the funeral because this music had long been his accompaniment for an elegant mime routine. Marceau was buried in Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.