Renowned French Mime, Marcel Marceau, was born On this Day, March 22, 1923. Expert in the practice of silence, his most famous quote is, "".
Born in Strasbourg, France as Marcel Mangel— his father, Charles Mangel, was a kosher butcher originally from Będzin, Poland. 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. When he was 16, the Nazis marched into eastern France. Marcel and his family fled with his family to Limoges in the southwest where he lived in hiding.
He would ultimately change his name to Marceau— to hide his Jewish roots, and to honor François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, a general of the French Revolution.
His father was a baritone who loved music and the theater, and he introduced Marcel to both at an early age. Marcel was captivated by the silent film stars of the era: Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Marx brothers.
He was schooled in the Paris
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