Posted on 09/24/2007 12:11:54 AM PDT by Cincinna
Marcel Marceau, the wiry French mime who did much to revive the art of pantomime, performing as Bip, his chalk-faced character in a stovepipe hat adorned with a red flower, died Saturday. He was 84 years old and lived in France.
His death was announced on French radio by Marceau's former assistant, Emmanuel Vacca.
Since 1945, when he began his silent career, Marceau performed an average of 200 shows a year, most of them abroad, where he was more highly praised than in his native France. His repertory changed little over the decades, but he played to full houses in the United States, Germany and other European countries, Australia and Japan, where he was deemed "a national treasure."
"At a time when generations of mime artists have rebelled against his brand of classical mime," Anna Kisselgoff wrote in The New York Times in 1999, "Mr. Marceau remains a model not a fossil. Anyone who has never seen the staples of the repertory with which Mr. Marceau has toured the United States since 1955 should beat a path to his performances."
His acts included "Creation," in which the start of the world began with a fluttering of his long fingers as fish and birds, and ended with Adam and Eve skulking out of Eden. In "Youth, Maturity, Old Age and Death," he depicted in four minutes the joy and pathos of life more succinctly and dramatically than many novelists and playwrights were able to do in hundreds of pages. He began folded into himself, an embryo, then strutted boldly, then crumpled and knotted himself into shrunken death.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Marcel Marceau was a big star in the US, touring the country every year. I was fortunate to see him many times on stage in NY.
His greatest American role was in Mel Brooks’ SILENT MOVIE in 1979, in which he had the only speaking role. Brilliant!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt5RaT53th0
I liked the guy. I never disagreed with a thing he said.
I do remember seeing him around a few times when I was a kid. I thought he was entertaining. I believe he was well respected for his craft.
Hate to see anyone set sail for the great hereafter...
I’d say good-bye Marcel, but I think you’d appreciate the most, a silent sincere okay sign followed by a wave...
A man more famous for being famous I always thought.
It was only on his death I learned that his name is a pseudonym, he is actually jewish, his father died in the concentration camps, and he himself was in the macquis (french resistance).
Marcel Marceau was a great artist, greatly appreciated in his own country and all over the world.
The art of Mime, derived from the Italian Commedia dell’Arte is not well understood by many. A shame.
He was a great artist, and a great man.
Words cannot describe our loss.
R.I.P.
The great thing about this is....now he won’t have to pretend he’s in a box! He’ll really BE in one!
Let’s make that a moment of noise.
Cue applause.
I am speechless.
His acting spoke louder than words.
Really unlike much of what passes for comedy today...
Not just saying a word for shock value and expecting a laugh.
Will they bury him in a glass box?
A mime is a terrible thing to lose............RIP, Mssr. Marceau..............
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