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Universally acclaimed as the World's Greatest Mime

Marcel Marceau

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 Theater 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 J.L. Barrault's Company who cast him 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 E. Decroux until 1948.

In 1947, Marcel Marceau created his character, "Bip", who has become his alter-ego, like Chaplin's "Little Tramp". Bip's adventures were a kind of Don Quixote's struggle against the windmills of life.

Marceau's style exercises include 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 do 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 toured the US on a regular basis for the past 40 years. 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 Europe.

Mr. Marceau's art has become familiar to millions of American 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 Scrooge in A Christmas Carol in 1973. He 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 ("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 RŽveries 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 orders: Officier de la LŽgion d'Honneur, Commander of Arts and Letters, and Commander of Merit. 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 three-year curriculum, has been subsidized since 1978 by the City of Paris. Mr. Marceau holds honorary doctorates from Princeton University, Linfield College, and the University of Michigan at Ann ArborŅAmerica's way of honoring Marcel Marceau's creation of a new art form, inherited from an old tradition.

1997-98 marks the 50th Anniversary of Marcel Marceau's famous copyrighted character Bip. He will create with his Company a new mimodrama, The Bowler Hat. Many world-wide events are being held to honor Marceau's genius and dedication to the legacy he brings to the world.

(Marcel Marceau is the Coordinator of the World Cultural Commission, WGWC)


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