Dressed in his signature white sailor suite and frequently carrying a silk opera hat and a single red rose, Marcel Marceau charming alter ego Bip represents fragility, hope and humanities search for happiness and as a holocaust survivor. The incomparable mime artist was well placed to reflect on the broad themes of existence. Born Marcel Mangel in Strasbourg in 1923, he changed his Jewish name to Marcel when the Nazi’s occupied France during the second world war. Marcel joined the French resistance with brother Alain and later joked, he performed his first mime when coming face to face with German soldiers, convincing them that he and a friend were the advance guard of a much larger force.

After the war, Marcel single handedly revived the art of mime. Joined inspiration from the silent films of Charlie Chaplin as to keep him, he started with great French teachers on universal acclaim with his first mini drama tracks the tale of the golden fish in 1946. Success in France enabled him to find his own pantomime company and only two of the world thrilling audiences with imaginative performances but his heart was big. the sad faced clowned who experienced heart ache and happiness in equal measure. His representations of the stages of human life, youth, maturity, old age and death led one critique to comment that Marcel accomplished in less than two minutes what most novelist cannot do in volumes. His genius was in distilling the essence of emotion and joined the audience into his non speaking world.

The birth of television gave Marcel a new platform for his creative artwork and he also featured in a number of films including Barbarela as the mad scientist Professor Peanut. In the Mel Brooke’s comedy silent movie, the joke is that Marcel has the only speaking line at brisk no, when asked if he would appear on the film. Despite his silent performances, Marcel was an extremely expressive talker.

In 2002 Marcel served as United Nations goodwill ambassador in the second world assembly in Egypt where he said it was important for his generation to help young people to understand the past, the present and the future. It was worldwide morning when he died five years later aged 87.