Marcel Marceau

Marcel Marceau was born Marcel Mangel in Strasbourg, France in 1923 to a Jewish family. Marcel changed his last name to “Marceau” during the Nazi occupation of France. While his father perished in Auschwitz, Marceau and his brothers joined the French Resistance, where they saved many children from concentration camps. After the war, Marceau studied dramatic art and started performing as a mime in French theaters, to widespread critical acclaim. He created his most famous persona, “Bip the Clown,” in 1947. Marceau began touring the United States in the mid-1950s and went on to star in several motion pictures, including Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie. Marceau founded his own school, International School of Mimodrame of Paris, and he also established the Marceau Foundation to promote mime in the U.S.