Results: A Different Side On A Familiar Face

Marcel Marceau was without a doubt the most famous mime, and paved the way for many others. He said he created the character of Bip as a symbol of hope, modelled after his movie hero, Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp. Bip was the classic underdog dressed in a striped shirt, white sailor pants and a battered top hat with a single red flower sprouting from the lid. Have you ever seen Marceau perform mime in person or on TV/movies?

But, before he used his mime skills for entertainment, he used them for another reason: to help him smuggle Jewish children out of Nazi-occupied France when he was part of the French Resistance. He later said that he used his pantomime skills to keep the children silent during the most dangerous moments. Did you know this about Marceau?

He also alluded to his character's dark origins, saying on another occasion that "the people who came back from the [concentration] camps were never able to talk about it… My name is Mangel. I am Jewish. Perhaps that, unconsciously, contributed towards my choice of silence." Do you see how his miming was a direct result of what happened to him during this time?

Marcel was in fact Jewish, and at the beginning of the Second World War, he had to hide his Jewish origin and changed his name from Mangel to Marceau, when his Jewish family was forced to flee their home. His father was deported to Auschwitz, where he was killed in 1944. Both Marceau and his brother, Alain, were in the French underground, helping children to escape to safety in neutral Switzerland. Then Marceau served as interpreter for the Free French Forces under General Charles de Gaulle, acting as liaison officer with the allied armies. Were you aware of this interesting story about Marceau?

The 2020 biopic Resistance (available on Netflix) is a drama based on his heroic life during the war. Have you seen this film?