page_title: Marcel Marceau
section_title: Awards and honors
hierarchical_section_title: Marcel Marceau / Awards and honors
caption_attribution_description: US President Jimmy Carter, Rosalynn Carter, and Amy Carter with mime Marcel Marceau, 06/16/1977 ARC Identifier: 175193 NLC-WHSP-C-01769-34 Español: El presidente Jimmy Carter, junto a Rosalynn Carter y Amy Carter, con el mimo francés Marcel Marceau, el 16 de junio de 1977.
context_page_description: 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" and he performed professionally worldwide for over 60 years. As a Jewish youth, he lived in hiding and worked with the French Resistance during most of World War II, giving his first major performance to 3,000 troops after the liberation of Paris in August 1944. Following the war, he studied dramatic art and mime in Paris.
  In 1959, he established his own pantomime school in Paris, and subsequently set up the Marceau Foundation to promote the art in the U.S. Among his various awards and honors he was made "Grand Officier de la Légion d'Honneur" and was awarded the National Order of Merit in France. He won the Emmy Award for his work on television, was elected member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin and was declared a "National treasure" in Japan. He was friends with Michael Jackson for nearly 20 years and Jackson said he used some of Marceau's techniques in his own dance steps.
context_section_description: Marceau was made a commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an Officer of the Légion d'honneur, and in 1978 he received the Médaille Vermeil de la Ville de Paris. The City of Paris awarded him a grant which enabled him to reopen his International School which offered a three-year curriculum. In November 1998, President Jacques Chirac made Marceau a grand officer of the Ordre national du Mérite.
  Marceau was an elected member of the Academy of Fine Arts Berlin, the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France.
  Marceau held honorary doctorates from Ohio State University, Linfield College, Princeton University and the University of Michigan. In April 2001, Marceau was awarded the Wallenberg Medal by the University of Michigan in recognition of his humanitarianism and acts of courage aiding Jews and other refugees during World War II.
  In 1999 New York City declared 18 March "Marcel Marceau Day".
  Marceau accepted the honor and responsibilities of serving as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Second World Assembly on Aging, which took place in Madrid, Spain, in April 2002.
caption: With U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Rosalynn Carter, and Amy Carter, 16 June 1977
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