By Francois Murphy
PARIS (Reuters) - Marcel Marceau, the world's best-known mime artist who for decades moved audiences across the globe without uttering a single word, has died aged 84.
The Frenchman's extensive tours and appearances on camera brought his silent art to people around the world. His comic and tragic sketches appealed on a universal level, with each audience interpreting his performance in its own way.
"Mime, like music, knows neither borders nor nationalities," he once said. "If laughter and tears are the characteristics of humanity, all cultures are steeped in our discipline."
On stage, he charmed with his deft silent movements, a white-faced figure with a striped jersey and battered top hat.
Off stage, with the costume and the pancake makeup removed, Marceau was a slim, agile man whose eloquent description and explanation complemented his mute mastery of mime.
In mime, Marceau said, gestures express the essence of the soul's most secret aspiration. "To mime the wind, one becomes a tempest. To mime a fish, you throw yourself into the sea."
He created the figure of Bip, the melancholy, engaging clown with a limp red flower in his hat, 60 years ago this year.
"The mime artist Marceau will forever be the character of Bip," Prime Minister Francois Fillon said in a statement confirming the performer's death. Continued...
The French mime  died at age 84 yesterday in . Emmanuel Vacca, Marceau's former assistant, announced his death on a French-Info radio station. Media reports also indicated his death was announced by his family.

Marceau appeared on stage for over 50 years without uttering a word. But, the off-stage chatty Marceau once said, "Never get a mime talking. He won't stop." His last known international tour was in 2005.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon said, "The mime Marceau will forever be the character of Bip."

Marceau was a French Jew who survived the Holocaust. Marceau was born as Marcel Mangel in Strasbourg, France on March 22, 1923.

No details about the cause of death or the funeral arrangements were immediately clear.