French Celebrities Bio | Marcel Marceau

The legendary mime artist Marcel Marceau – he of white painted face and extraordinary facial expressions – is of one of those icons of French culture that everyone recognises yet about whom nobody really knows that much.

However, a look at his life may go some way to explaining his endearingly melancholic demeanour and the huge success he enjoyed as the master of the ‘art of silence’.


Born in Strasbourg in 1923 the son of a butcher, Marcel’s real name was the rather less showbiz-friendly Marcel Mangel.

As a child his family moved around a lot, living in both Lille and Limoges. It was as a youngster that he began to idolise American silent film stars such as Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd but it was when his father took him to see Charlie Chaplin in City of Lights that the seeds were sewn for a future career as a mime.

The family’s defining tragedy came when his Jewish father was deported to Auschwitz in 1944 and killed. Marcel and his brother Alain worked for the Resistance during this time and the name change to Marceau helped to preserve Marcel’s true identity from the Germans.


Two roles would define Marceau’s early career. In 1947 he won the role of The Harlequin in Jean-Louis Barrault's take on the pantomime Baptiste. It was a role that Barrault had himself played in the hugely successful film Les Enfants du Paradis. Marcel’s interpretation was universally acclaimed.

The other triumph was his creation of Bip the Clown in a show at the Pocket Theatre in Paris. The character eventually became his alter ego throughout a long career and its popularity allowed Marceau to found his own mime company.

The vital step to world recognition came when the mime was asked to perform for 3,000 of General Patton’s troops in Germany. This led to a Broadway show and a sell-out six-month tour of the USA. TV talk-show appearances in the 1960s cemented his global fame and film roles soon followed.

Marceau toured relentlessly and also found time to write, paint and teach his craft to others at his International Mime School. His status in French cultural life was marked by many honours such as the Legion of Honour and the Commander of Arts and Letters, while several American universities awarded him honorary doctorates.

Right up until 2005 he was performing on stage, just two years before his death at Cahors racetrack in the Lot. Appropriately, at his funeral the second movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 was played – Marceau had long used the piece as an accompaniment to a famous mime routine.

Marcel Marceau brought joy to millions around the world in spite of – or perhaps because of – his traumatic early life. For that, he is truly a French national treasure.

Author: Katharine Barrau