Early years
Marcel Marceau (
Marcel Mangel
) was born in
Strasbourg, France, to Jewish parents, Anne Werzberg and Charles Mangel.
[1] When he was four, the family moved to
Lille, but returned to Strasbourg when he was in his early teens.
When France entered
World War II, Marceau, 16, fled with his family to
Limoges..
His father, a
kosher butcher, was arrested by the
Gestapo and deported to
Auschwitz concentration camp, where he perished in 1944.
Marcel and his older brother, Alain, adopted the last name "Marceau" in order to hide their Jewish origins; as a gesture of defiance, however, the name was chosen as a reference to
François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, a
general of the
French Revolution.
[2] [3] The two brothers joined the
French Resistance in
Limoges, where they saved numerous Jewish children from
concentration camps, and later joined
Charles de Gaulle's
Free French Forces.
Owing to Marcel's excellent command of the English language, he worked as a liaison officer with
General Patton's army.
Marcel was married and divorced three times, first to Huguette Mallet with whom he had two sons, Michel and Baptiste. Secondly, to Ella Jaroszewicz. His third wife was Anne Sicco. They had two daughters, Camille and Aurélia.
[5]
Gifted in gymnastics and acting, and inspired by the physical comedy of
Charlie Chaplin,
Buster Keaton, and the
Marx Brothers, 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 Joshua Smith and the great master,
Étienne Decroux, who had also taught
Jean-Louis Barrault. Marceau joined Barrault's company 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
.
[6] 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.
Before beginning his career as a mime, Marcel Marceau danced with Rina Shaham (née Rosalind Gologorsky); she ended their partnership to pursue a successful career in modern dance in
Israel.
Career
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, just like 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 founded Compagnie de Mime Marcel Marceau - the only company of pantomime in the world at the time. The ensemble played the leading Paris theaters - Le Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Le Théâtre 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 Three Wigs
,
The Pawn Shop
,
14 July
,
The Wolf of Tsu Ku Mi
,
Paris Cries—Paris Laughs
and
Don Juan
(adapted from the Spanish writer
Tirso de Molina).
World recognition
thumb,
Rosalynn Carter, and
Amy Carter,
June 16 1977
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, his character has the only audible speaking part, 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 filming.
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 Œil
, (
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 1969, Marcel Marceau opened his first school, Ecole Internationale de Mime, in the Théàtre de la Musique in Paris. The school was open for two years with fencing, acrobatics, ballet and five teachers of Mime.
In 1978, Marceau established his own school, 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, and choreographer
Michael Jackson and Marceau conceived a concert for
HBO, but the concert was cancelled because Jackson had collapsed due to a panic attack prior to the concert. 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 Theater 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 Théâtre Antoine in Paris.
Personal life
At the age of 84, Marcel Marceau died at his home in
Cahors, France, on
Yom Kippur, 22 September 2007. His burial ceremony was accompanied by Mozart's
Piano Concerto No. 21, and the
sarabande of Bach's
Cello Suite No. 5. Marcel Marceau was interred in the
Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
[7]
Legacy and honours
Marceau was made a commander of the
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an Officer of the
Légion d'honneur, and in 1978 he received the
Médaille Vermeil de la Ville de Paris.
[8] In November 1998, he was made by President
Jacques Chirac a grand officer of the
Ordre national du Mérite, and he was an elected member of the Academy of Fine Arts in
Berlin, the
Academy of Fine Arts 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
The Ohio State University,
Linfield College,
Princeton University and the
University of Michigan.
In 1999
New York City declared March 18 "Marcel Marceau Day".
He became the eleventh recipient of the
Raoul Wallenberg Medal on April 30, 2001. The Auditorium was standing-room-only that night. “This year the person chosen to be the Wallenberg Medalist is unlike all previous medalists in that he is famous all over the world,” said University of Michigan professor emerita Irene Butter in her introduction. “Yet he is not widely known for his humanitarianism and acts of courage, for which we honor him tonight.”
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.
Bibliography
- Marceau wrote the preface to the French high wire artist Philippe Petit's 1985 book, On The High Wire
. ISBN 039471573X
- Marceau wrote the foreword to Stefan Niedzialkowski's and Jonathan Winslow's 1993 book, Beyond the Word — the World of Mime
. ISBN 1879094231.
References
- Marcel MarceauBiography
- Marcel Marceau - In Memorium
- Marcel Marceau, 84; legendary mime was his art’s standard-bearer for seven decades
- Marcel Marceau, Master of Silence.
- Marcel Marceau, Renowned Mime, Dies at 84-NY Times.
- Master of Mime passes away.
- Marcel Marceau laid to rest
- Marcel Marceau: Mime Artist and Teacher