Those Who Don't Know Their Mime History Are Doomed To Repeat It
Marcel Marceau - universally acclaimed as the world's greatest mime, was born in Strasbourg, France. Marceau's interest in the art of mime began in his childhood, when he was inspired by such silent screen artists as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Harold Lloyd, and Laurel & Hardy.
In 1944 he enrolled in Charles Dullin's School of Dramatic Art in the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris, where he studied with his mime master Etienne Decroux, who also taught Jean-Louis Barrault. At the Liberation of Paris, he enrolled in the First French Army and participated in the German campaign, side by side with the American GI's. Demobilized in May 1946, he entered Barrault's Company, and was cast in the role of Arlequin in the pantomime Baptiste which Barrault himself had interpreted in the world famous film Les Enfants du Paradis. He continued to work with Decroux until 1948.
In 1947, Marcel Marceau created his character, "Bip", who has become his alter-ego, like Chaplin's "Little Tramp". Bip's adventure likened to Don Quixote's struggle against the windmills of life.
Marceau's style exercises include such classic works as The Cage, The Mask Maker, The Public Garden, and the famous Youth, Maturity, Old Age and Death of which one critic said "he accomplishes in less than five minutes what most novelists can not do in volumes."
In 1948 he received the renowned Deburau Prize (established in memory of the great 19th Century Pierrot). Marcel Marceau formed his Compagnie de mime Marcel Marceau - the only company of pantomime in the world at that time - and played in the leading Paris theaters as well as other playhouses in Europe, Canada and South America. With his company, he produced, directed and played 26 mimodramas, including Pierrot de Montmartre, The 3 Wigs, The Pawn Shop, 14th July, The Wolf of Tsu-Ku-Mi, Paris laughs - Paris cries, and Don Juan (adapted from Tirso de Molina).
Marcel Marceau first toured in the United States in 1955-56, soon after his North American debut at the Stratford (Ontario) Festival. This first US tour ended with a record-breaking return to New York's City Center in the spring of 1956 after playing to standing-room-only crowds in San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and other major cities and universities. He has since toured the US on a regular basis for over 40 years and his extensive transcontinental tours have included South America, South and North Africa, Israel, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, India, China, South East Asia, Russia and all of Europe. For nearly 40 of these years, Marceau's North American activity was undertaken in partnership with Mr. Ronald Wilford in a professional relationship regarded as one of the most successful and long-lasting in the entertainment world.
Mr. Marceau's art has become familiar to millions of Americans through his many television appearances. He received two Emmy Awards for his television shows (The Maurice Chevalier Show and Laugh In). He appeared on the BBC as 17 different characters in A Christmas Carol in 1973, and appeared in 13 films produced by Encyclopedia Britannica including Bip and the style pantomimes. He has been the television guest of Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, and Dinah Shore, and teamed with Red Skelton in three concerts of pantomimes.
Marcel Marceau has demonstrated his versatility in motion pictures, such as Barbarella with Jane Fonda, directed by Roger Vadim; Shanks, directed by Bill Castle, in which he combined his silent art playing a deaf mute puppeteer and a speaking mad scientist. He said the only word ("No") in Mel Brook's Silent Movie.
Children have been delighted by The Alphabet Book and Marcel Marceau's Counting Hat Book. Other publications of Marceau's paintings, poetry and illustrations include his La Ballade de Paris et du Monde, Les Réveries du Bip, The Story of Bip (Harpers and Row), Pimporello (Belfond Paris), and The Third Eye (Paris Lithoprint).
The French Government has conferred upon Mr. Marceau its highest honors: Officier de la Légion d'Honneur, Commandeur des Arts et Lettres, and Grand Officier de l'Ordre National du Mérite. He is an elected member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and is a member of the prestigious Institut de France. His Ecole Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris, which offers a two-year curriculum, has been subsidized since 1978 by the City of Paris.
Mr. Marceau holds honorary doctorates from Princeton University, Ohio State University, Linfield College, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; America's way of honoring Marcel Marceau's creation of a new art form, inherited from an old tradition.
In 2000, Mr. 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. Since 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 has enjoyed a remarkable renaissance with strong appeal to a third generation. He has recently appeared for extended engagements at such legendary American theaters as The Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA, and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, to overwhelming acclaim, demonstrating the timeless appeal of the work and the mastery of this unique artist.
Mr. Marceau has accepted the honor and responsibilities of serving as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Second World Assembly on Ageing, which took place in Madrid, Spain in April, 2002. A new photo book for children titled "Bip in a Book", published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, is in the bookstores in the US, France and Australia. Marceau's new full company production Les Comptes Fantastiques (Fantasy Tales) opened in the spring of 2003 to great acclaim at the Theatre Antoine in Paris, and in Fall of 2004 the production had it's North American premiere at ART in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now largely retired from the stage, Marcel Marceau's legacy lives on through the performances of next-generation mimes and in the hearts of the millions who have enjoyed his performance throughout the world.
