Marcel Marceau, the world's best-known mime artist, has died at
the age of 84, media reports said Sunday.
"He died yesterday evening," his daughter Camille said Sunday.
Funeral arrangements were not immediately known.
For decades, Marceau, whose real name was Marcel Mangel,
epitomized the silent art, eliciting laughter and tears from
audiences around the globe.
He was single-handedly responsible for reviving the art of mime
after World War II, after two decades of being eclipsed by the
silent movie, dominated by the genius of Charlie Chaplin, Buster
Keaton or Laurel and Hardy.
In 1947, Marceau created the figure of Bip, a sad, white-faced
clown in a striped jumper and a battered silk opera hat, and became
became internationally famous.
He formed his own mime company in 1948, and the troupe was soon
touring other European countries, presenting mime dramas. The
company failed financially in 1959, but was revived as a school,
the Ecole Internationale de Mimodrame, in 1984.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon praised Marceau as "the master,"
saying he had the rare gift of "being able to communicate with each
and everyone beyond the barriers of language."
(Agencies via Xinhua September 24, 2007)
