Marcel (Mangel) Marceau (1923 - 2007)

Born 22 Mar 1923 in Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France

Ancestors

Husband of Huguette (Mallett) Mallet — married 4 Sep 1953 (to 1958) in Périgueux, Dordogne, France

Died 22 Sep 2007 at age 84 in Cahors, Lot, France

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Biography

Marcel (Mangel) Marceau is Notable.

Marcel (Mangel) Marceau has Jewish Roots.

Legendary French actor and mime most famous for playing "Bip the Clown."

Marcel Mangle was born 22 March 1923 to a Jewish family in Strasbourg, France. His father Charles Mangle was a butcher from Będzin, Poland. His mother Ann Werzberg was from Yabluniv, present-day Ukraine.

When Marcel was 16, the Nazis invaded France and Marcel's family moved to Limoges, France. He and his brother Alain worked with the French Resistance during World War II.

He joined their cousin Georges Loinger's organization Juive de Combat (JDC), made up of nine Jewish networks that rescued thousands of children and adults during the Holocaust in France. He joined the operation and smuggled at least 70 Jewish children into Switzerland.

Marcel was fluent in English, French, and German. He worked as a liaison officer for General George Patton's Third Army.

After the war, Marceau studied dramatic acting and mime at the School of Dramatic Art of the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris. In 1947, he began playing his famous character Bip the Clown, a tragicomic figure with a striped shirt, white face paint, and a battered beflowered hat. Bip explored the range of human emotions and his actions spoke louder than words could. Soon after, he founded the Compagnie de Mime Marcel Marceau, the only pantomime company in the world at the time, to develop the art of silence. ^[1]

In 1970, the French government named him a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur for cultural affairs. ^[2]

He died 22 Sep 2007 in Cahors, France. He is buried in Père-Lachaise Cemetery in France.^[3]

On 22 March 2023, Google celebrated his 100th birthday with a Google Doodle.

Sources

1. ↑ "Marcel Marceau's 100th Birthday". Google. 22 March 2023
2. ↑ Clarity, James F. and Eric Pace, "Marcel Marceau, Renowned Mime, Dies at 84", The New York Times. 24 September 2007.
3. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #21714127. Bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni.

• Wikipedia: Marcel Marceau
• Tom Tugend, "Marcel Marceau’s WWII experiences," Jewish Telegraph Agency, August 18, 2002.
• Clarity, James F. and Eric Pace, "Marcel Marceau, Renowned Mime, Dies at 84", The New York Times. 24 September 2007.
• "Marcel Marceau's 100th Birthday". Google. 22 March 2023