Marcel Marceau was a French actor and mime artist most famous for his stage persona, “Bip the Clown”.

He referred to mime as the “art of silence”, performing professionally worldwide for more than 60 years. Marceau died in a retirement home in Cahors, France, on 22 September 2007 at the age of 84 and Google celebrated his 100th birthday with a Google Doodle on March 22, 2023.

Marcel Marceau parents: Meet Charles Mangel, Anne Werzberg

Marcel Marceau was born in Strasbourg, France, to a Jewish family. His father, Charles Mangel, was a kosher butcher originally from Będzin, Poland whereas his mother, Anne Werzberg, came from Yabluniv, present-day Ukraine.

When Marcel was four years old, the family moved to Lille, but they later returned to Strasbourg and after France’s invasion by Nazi Germany, Marcel, who was then 17, fled with his family to Limoges. 

Marcel Marceau was hit with a sad tragedy in 1944 when his father was captured by the Gestapo and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he was killed. Marcel’s mother survived

Marcel Marceau had not been the only child of his parents he has an elder brother named Alain and together they adopted the last name “Marceau” during the German occupation of France. According to the two brothers, the name was chosen as a reference to François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, a general of the French Revolution.