Mimes in Ottawa Mime and Marcel Marceau

There is a man statue-like holding a badminton racket and bent over as if about to step. You have seen him in la marche by in Ottawa, but perhaps skirted around the stubbly face.
His racket spins if you give him a tip. His white gloves will wave thanks as well.
Yesterday, he spoke. To paraphrase, the master is dead Marcel Marceau is dead.

A connection, a soul, an unexpected utterance, yes.


Marcel Marceau bows out

ANGELA DOLAND

Associated Press

September 23, 2007 at 8:44 AM EDT

PARIS — Marcel Marceau, who revived the art of mime and brought poetry to silence, has died, his former assistant said Sunday. He was 84.

Marceau died Saturday in Paris, French media reported. Former assistant Emmanuel Vacca announced the death on France-Info radio, but gave no details about the cause.

Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower, Marceau, notably through his famed persona Bip, played the entire range of human emotions onstage for more than 50 years, never uttering a word. Offstage, however, he was famously chatty. “Never get a mime talking. He won't stop,” he once said.

A French Jew, Marceau survived the Holocaust and also worked with the French Resistance to protect Jewish children...