Marcelwas 16 years old at the time. Actor and mime artist Marcel Mangel was born in Strasbourg, France on March 22, 1923. To hide their Jewish backgrounds, Marcel created IDs for his brother and himself, adopting the last name of Marceau, made famous by a general who fought in the French Revolution. “The young people came out in the streets in opposition,” Marceau says. He undertook the perilous journey three times, helping to save more than 70 children. When Marcel was four years old, the family moved to Lille, but they later returned to Strasbourg. “I know I will die some day, but until then I will continue to work with all my power. Marcel Marceau (22 March 1923 – 22 September 2007) was a French actor and mime most famous for his stage persona as "Bip the Clown." When the World War II struck France, the family fled to Limoges. “I am sure fascism will not succeed in France.” Marceau’s face, without Bip’s white makeup, has naturally aged, but his body is still taut and agile at 79. The artist, who recently appeared here, was born Marcel Mangel, the son of a kosher butcher with socialist leanings, in the French city of Strasbourg, near the border with Germany. “As time goes on, my art deepens,” he says. Marceau moved to Paris after its liberation in 1944 and joined the French army. LOS ANGELES, Aug. 18 (JTA) — On his Internet site, Marcel Marceau’s biography begins in 1946, when he enrolled in a theater arts school in Paris. Marcel Mangeland his brother took the surname Marceau during the War since it was a … Then Marceau served as interpreter for the Free French Forces under General Charles de Gaulle , acting as liaison officer with the allied armies. With the Nazi conquest of France in 1940, Marcel and his older brother Alain escaped to the city of Limoges, where he studied decorative arts. 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The role of Marcel Marceau should have been a highpoint of star Jesse Eisenberg’s career ambitions the way playing Charlie Chaplin was for Robert Downey Jr. The artist later incorporated this experience in one of his most elaborate sketches, “Bip Remembers.” In it, says Marceau, “I go back in memory to my childhood home, how my father took me on a carousel, I show life and death in war, I show Hitler and waves of soldiers being mowed down by machine guns.” “Bip Remembers” is the only performance in his vast repertoire that consciously draws on his childhood experiences. “We must have peace — even with Islam — or we will be destroyed.”, By submitting the above I agree to the privacy policy and terms of use of JTA.org. © 2020 jewish telegraphic agency all rights reserved. “I went disguised as a Boy Scout leader and took 24 Jewish kids, also in scout uniforms, through the forests to the border, where someone else would take them into Switzerland,” Marceau recalled during a recent interview. At war’s end, Marceau returned to his native Strasbourg. Marcel Marceau, born March 22, 1923 in Strasbourg, France, became one of the most famous mimes in the world. He referred to mime as the "art of silence, " and he performed professionally worldwide for over 60 years. He is currently reading David Shipler’s “Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land,” and insists, “We have to find peace.” He is also concerned about a surge of anti-Semitic incidents in his native France, but is certain that “we will overcome it.” He takes confidence from the response of France’s young people to the recent presidential bid by extreme right winger Jean-Marie Le Pen. Marceau changed his name because he needed to hide during the war, choosing “Marceau” to honor a historic French general, along with his brother Alain. His father Charles and mother Ann were both Jewish. The training proved valuable two years later, when the brothers joined the French Resistance, and Marcel was put to work forging new identity cards for young Frenchmen trying to avoid the German forced labor draft.