PARIS (AP) — [1]Marcel Marceau, the master of mime who transformed silence into poetry with lithe gestures and pliant facial expressions that spoke to generations of young and old, has died. He was 84.Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower, Marceau breathed new life into an art that dates to ancient Greece. He played out the human comedy through his alter-ego Bip without ever uttering a word.
Offstage, he was famously chatty. “Never get a mime talking. He won’t stop,” he once said.
I am unwillingly reminded of George Carlin’s famous line… one Marceau himself reportedly got a charge out of.
Marcel Marceau died today in Paris. He had no last words. However, he did make several gestures.
Then again, Carlin is 70 years old these days.