|
Author
|
Topic: RIP Marcel Marceau
|
Roy Hobbs
Open Line Veteran
Member # 8266
|
posted September 23, 2007 04:59 AM
He went before his mime.
----------------------------------
French Mime Marcel Marceau Dies
By ANGELA DOLAND – 19 minutes ago
PARIS (AP) — Marcel Marceau, who revived the art of mime and brought poetry to silence, has died, his former assistant said Sunday. He was 84.
Marceau died Saturday in Paris, French media reported. Former assistant Emmanuel Vacca announced the death on France-Info radio, but gave no details about the cause.
Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower, Marceau, notably through his famed personnage Bip, played the entire range of human emotions onstage for more than 50 years, never uttering a word. Offstage, however, he was famously chatty. "Never get a mime talking. He won't stop," he once said.
A French Jew, Marceau survived the Holocaust — and also worked with the French Resistance to protect Jewish children.
His biggest inspiration was Charlie Chaplin. Marceau, in turn, inspired countless young performers — Michael Jackson borrowed his famous "moonwalk" from a Marceau sketch, "Walking Against the Wind."
Marceau performed tirelessly around the world until late in life, never losing his agility, never going out of style. In one of his most poignant and philosophical acts, "Youth, Maturity, Old Age, Death," he wordlessly showed the passing of an entire life in just minutes.
"Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us without words?" he once said.
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."
Marceau was born Marcel Mangel on March 22, 1923, in Strasbourg, France. His father Charles, a butcher who sang baritone, introduced his son to the world of music and theater at an early age. The boy adored the silent film stars of the era: Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Marx brothers.
When the Germans marched into eastern France, he and his family were given just hours to pack their bags. He fled to southwest France and changed his last name to Marceau to hide his Jewish origins.
With his brother Alain, Marceau became active in the French Resistance. Marceau altered children's identity cards, changing their birth dates to trick the Germans into thinking they were too young to be deported. Because he spoke English, he was recruited to be a liaison officer with Gen. George S. Patton's army.
In 1944, Marceau's father was sent to Auschwitz, where he died.
Later, he reflected on his father's death: "Yes, I cried for him."
But he also thought of all the others killed: "Among those kids was maybe an Einstein, a Mozart, somebody who (would have) found a cancer drug," he told reporters in 2000. "That is why we have a great responsibility. Let us love one another."
When Paris was liberated, Marcel's life as a performer began. He enrolled in Charles Dullin's School of Dramatic Art, studying with the renowned mime Etienne Decroux.
On a tiny stage at the Theatre de Poche, a smoke-filled Left Bank cabaret, he sought to perfect the style of mime that would become his trademark.
Bip — Marceau's on-stage persona — was born.
Marceau once said that Bip was his creator's alter ego, a sad-faced double whose eyes lit up with child-like wonder as he discovered the world. Bip was a direct descendant of the 19th century harlequin, but his clownish gestures, Marceau said, were inspired by Chaplin and Keaton.
Marceau likened his character to a modern-day Don Quixote, "alone in a fragile world filled with injustice and beauty."
Dressed in a white sailor suit, a top hat — a red rose perched on top — Bip chased butterflies and flirted at cocktail parties. He went to war and ran a matrimonial service.
In one famous sketch, "Public Garden," Marceau played all the characters in a park, from little boys playing ball to old women with knitting needles.
In 1949 Marceau's newly formed mime troupe was the only one of its kind in Europe. But it was only after a hugely successful tour across the United States in the mid-1950s that Marceau received the acclaim that would make him an international star.
Single-handedly, Marceau revived the art of mime.
"I have a feeling that I did for mime what (Andres) Segovia did for the guitar, what (Pablo) Casals did for the cello," he once told The Associated Press in an interview.
In the past decades, he has taken Bip to from Mexico to China to Australia. He's also made film appearances. The most famous was Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie": He had the only speaking line, "Non!"
As he aged, Marceau kept on performing at the same level, never losing the agility that made him famous. On top of his Legion of Honor and his countless honorary degrees, he was invited to be a United Nations goodwill ambassador for a 2002 conference on aging.
"If you stop at all when you are 70 or 80, you cannot go on," he told The AP in an interview in 2003. "You have to keep working."
Funeral arrangements were not immediately known.
Posts: 11544 | From: Shermer, IL 60062 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
FD2BLK
Open Line Veteran
Member # 4592
|
posted September 23, 2007 05:02 AM
Friends described him as a quiet man.
--------------------
If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice
Posts: 7338 | From: Temples of Syrinx | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Diplomat
Open Line Veteran
Member # 2560
|
posted September 23, 2007 05:16 AM
He went before his mime.
--------------------
"I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University."
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Posts: 14159 | From: Where I Am | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Roy Hobbs
Open Line Veteran
Member # 8266
|
posted September 23, 2007 05:25 AM
Words can't express the grief.
Posts: 11544 | From: Shermer, IL 60062 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Major Woody
Member
Member # 15627
|
posted September 23, 2007 05:46 AM
He was an assh*le anyway. Let the punishment fit the mime.
Posts: 250 | From: East Coast | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
Jane Craig
Open Line Veteran
Member # 4873
|
posted September 23, 2007 06:00 AM
Marcel Marceau, Alice Ghostley, and Rex Humbard. An interesting troika...
May they all rest in peace.
Posts: 9951 | From: Earth | Registered: Nov 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Roy Hobbs
Open Line Veteran
Member # 8266
|
posted September 23, 2007 06:13 AM
I'm speechless.
Posts: 11544 | From: Shermer, IL 60062 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
KROG-TV
Senior Member
Member # 759
|
posted September 23, 2007 06:28 AM
(can't believe no one has said it yet....)
A moment of silence for Marcel Marceau...
...the only man with a speaking role in Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie!"
--------------------
"We all feed
On tragedy.
It's like blood to a vampire."
Tool - Vicarious
Posts: 898 | From: Kansas City | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Mom
Open Line Veteran
Member # 553
|
posted September 23, 2007 06:36 AM
As a theatre major in college, I once had a Master Class with the esteemed Marcel Marceau. I was actually in a traveling mime troupe (my claim to fame was the impersonation of a coming-to-boil teapot while in white face. I was brilliant! ![[Whistle]](graemlins/eusa_whistle.gif) )
Mr. Marceau spoke with a beautiful French accent. His voice was rich and melodic and he used his hands expressively as he spoke. He also had a face that was bigger than life. His nose was larger and sharper than most, he had a broad forehead, high cheekbones, a chiseled face and a wide, wide mouth. Covering that face up in white make-up turned him into something completely different. As successful as he was (I mean, how many mimes can you name other than him) I wonder what kind of actor he would have made?
He was a memorable man.
Posts: 1855 | From: south | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Lazlo Toth
Open Line Veteran
Member # 4867
|
posted September 23, 2007 06:51 AM
Will he be buried in an invisible box?
--------------------
Nowhere are prejudices more mistaken for truth, passion for reason, and invective for documentation than in politics. This a realm, peopled only by villains or heroes, in which everything is black or white and gray is a forbidden color.
-- John Mason Brown, Through These Men (1956)
Posts: 7959 | From: SF Bay Area | Registered: Nov 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
rawhead rex
Senior Member
Member # 12152
|
posted September 23, 2007 07:14 AM
An interesting fact has surfaced about Marceau. During a period in his life when he was suffering from severe depression, he contemplated suicide. He bought a handgun and a silencer, but changed his mind when he didn't hear inspiring voices.
Posts: 1357 | From: oklahoma city | Registered: Nov 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
DoctorDepends
Open Line Veteran
Member # 1576
|
posted September 23, 2007 09:15 AM
If we was such a great mime, how come everyone has heard about his death?
Posts: 8568 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Scarlet Termite
Senior Member
Member # 7134
|
posted September 23, 2007 09:47 AM
.
--------------------
You're born. You do paperwork. You die. - Me
The Adventures of Chad Cleanly
Hemmerobilia
Posts: 1455 | From: Clumbus, Ahia | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Clever Login Name
Open Line Veteran
Member # 6236
|
posted September 23, 2007 07:24 PM
His best role was as Ross's monkey on "Friends".
--------------------
Fred Thompson has released a comprehensive plan to save Social Security: Kill old hippies.
Posts: 4500 | From: Santa Poco, Mexico | Registered: May 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
sonorandesert
Open Line Veteran
Member # 739
|
posted September 24, 2007 01:37 AM
. ..... ......, ... .'. ..... .. .... ....
translation: I would comment, but i'm stuck in this box.
Posts: 2040 | From: somewhere in the desert... | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
facts
Open Line Veteran
Member # 3324
|
posted September 24, 2007 05:08 AM
Why didnt' anyone say anything?
Posts: 3144 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Tripe Face
Open Line Veteran
Member # 3328
|
posted September 24, 2007 08:46 AM
Will there be a moment of silence for him??? Or a moment of noise?
--------------------
"Tripe is getting far too much attention.
There will be no dealing with him soon." Writer2 11/9/07
Posts: 9684 | From: From the Student Section of Mountaineer Stadium | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Clever Login Name
Open Line Veteran
Member # 6236
|
posted September 24, 2007 08:58 AM
I ragged in the Pavarotti thread a few weeks ago about how too many producers/writers who will say "a great voice has been silenced" ... hard to say how they'll handle this one.
--------------------
Fred Thompson has released a comprehensive plan to save Social Security: Kill old hippies.
Posts: 4500 | From: Santa Poco, Mexico | Registered: May 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Tripe Face
Open Line Veteran
Member # 3328
|
posted September 24, 2007 09:12 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Omega Man:
He went before his mime.
Omega.. you are a day late and a dollar short.. see Dip's post above.
--------------------
"Tripe is getting far too much attention.
There will be no dealing with him soon." Writer2 11/9/07
Posts: 9684 | From: From the Student Section of Mountaineer Stadium | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Kace
Open Line Veteran
Member # 7837
|
posted September 24, 2007 09:15 AM
I wonder how Jewell Marceau's taking it?
--------------------
55 Days To Season 5!
Our Main Event! (11/12/2007)
NCAA Basketball - Charlotte
Appalachian State Mountaineers At Charlotte 49ers
Posts: 9806 | From: The Planet | Registered: Jan 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Omega Man
Senior Member
Member # 6977
|
posted September 24, 2007 09:15 AM
I hate it when people quote posts before I can delete them. I caught that right after I posted. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
Posts: 675 | From: in my fourth floor fortress | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Signature on File
Open Line Veteran
Member # 6488
|
posted September 24, 2007 09:18 AM
How did he die? If he was assasinated, did his shooter use a silencer?
--------------------
Steve Fossett has just set a new record. Winner of the 2007 Nevada "Hide & Seek" Championship.
Posts: 5477 | From: Zxracradia | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Kace
Open Line Veteran
Member # 7837
|
posted September 24, 2007 09:19 AM
They tried to extract information out of him, but he wouldn't talk.
--------------------
55 Days To Season 5!
Our Main Event! (11/12/2007)
NCAA Basketball - Charlotte
Appalachian State Mountaineers At Charlotte 49ers
Posts: 9806 | From: The Planet | Registered: Jan 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Historian
Open Line Veteran
Member # 3244
|
posted September 24, 2007 10:03 AM
What were his last words?
--------------------
"Did it feel good to cut through Elmo's neck?" -- Malcolm in the Middle
Posts: 2577 | From: Alexandria Library | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Clubbeat
Senior Member
Member # 6503
|
posted September 24, 2007 10:17 AM
I heard that he died from a disease that was silent but deadly.
--------------------
You must command respect, not demand it.
Posts: 658 | From: Tallahassee, Florida | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Bandit '07
Open Line Veteran
Member # 3260
|
posted September 24, 2007 10:45 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Historian:
What were his last words?
--------------------
http://twitter.com/weatherchaos - link to my Twitter page. (Yes, I am a twit.)
Posts: 2411 | From: NC | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Roy Hobbs
Open Line Veteran
Member # 8266
|
posted September 24, 2007 02:41 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Tripe Face:
quote:
Originally posted by Omega Man:
He went before his mime.
Omega.. you are a day late and a dollar short.. see Dip's post above.
Ummmmm...all three of you see the first line of the FIRST POST!
Posts: 11544 | From: Shermer, IL 60062 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Diplomat
Open Line Veteran
Member # 2560
|
posted September 24, 2007 02:44 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Roy Hobbs:
quote:
Originally posted by Tripe Face:
quote:
Originally posted by Omega Man:
He went before his mime.
Omega.. you are a day late and a dollar short.. see Dip's post above.
Ummmmm...all three of you see the first line of the FIRST POST!
Roy is right. I didn't even notice that. I was looking at the obit.
--------------------
"I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University."
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Posts: 14159 | From: Where I Am | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Clever Login Name
Open Line Veteran
Member # 6236
|
posted September 24, 2007 02:50 PM
He went before his mime.
--------------------
Fred Thompson has released a comprehensive plan to save Social Security: Kill old hippies.
Posts: 4500 | From: Santa Poco, Mexico | Registered: May 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Roy Hobbs
Open Line Veteran
Member # 8266
|
posted September 24, 2007 07:35 PM
In Space, no one can hear you scream.
Posts: 11544 | From: Shermer, IL 60062 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sid
Member
Member # 1807
|
posted September 24, 2007 08:55 PM
Shields and Yarnell had no comment.
Posts: 281 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
SpxGrunt
Open Line Veteran
Member # 9501
|
posted September 24, 2007 08:58 PM
He went before his totally unoriginal responses to this thread.
Posts: 2072 | From: Cubbyhole | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
Signature on File
Open Line Veteran
Member # 6488
|
posted September 25, 2007 06:49 AM
His family will definitely miss a great send off if they don't bury him in a glass coffin with his hands stuck to the top glass in full mime costume.
--------------------
Steve Fossett has just set a new record. Winner of the 2007 Nevada "Hide & Seek" Championship.
Posts: 5477 | From: Zxracradia | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
amp
Open Line Veteran
Member # 354
|
posted September 25, 2007 11:01 AM
He died quietly in the silent of the night.
--------------------
But don't listen to the talk about having shows beamed directly into your brain. That's science-fiction nonsense. Shows will be stored in the pancreas and will enter the brain through the bloodstream after being downloaded into your iHole. --Joss Whedon
Posts: 1932 | From: UC-Sunnydale | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Roy Hobbs
Open Line Veteran
Member # 8266
|
posted September 25, 2007 02:52 PM
He went peacefully.
Posts: 11544 | From: Shermer, IL 60062 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Roy Hobbs
Open Line Veteran
Member # 8266
|
posted September 26, 2007 04:26 PM
And kept a civil tongue.
Posts: 11544 | From: Shermer, IL 60062 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
kneedinthegroin
Open Line Veteran
Member # 2166
|
posted September 27, 2007 07:20 AM
mime is money.
--------------------
God is not a republican....or a democrat
The Bible is the single most shoplifted book.
Posts: 2834 | From: Slightly south of normal | Registered: Oct 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Ronald Reagan
Member
Member # 1540
|
posted September 27, 2007 07:28 AM
Marceau Died?
...he never said a word.
And I thought I was a quiet guy? Rest in Peace Marcel.
[ September 27, 2007, 07:29 AM: Message edited by: Groucho Marx! ]
Posts: 111 | From: Right Here, and Right Now | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Roy Hobbs
Open Line Veteran
Member # 8266
|
posted September 28, 2007 05:15 PM
Safe bet he didn't wear Converse.
Posts: 11544 | From: Shermer, IL 60062 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
