Q 01/05

What was Marceau's surname at birth?

A) Werzberg

B) Dreyfus

C) Mangel

D) Bloch

Answer · why

C) Mangel

Mangel: he and his brother Alain took the name Marceau in the Resistance to hide their Jewish origins, and he reached Paris on false identity papers.

Q 02/05

In which French city was Marceau born in 1923?

A) Toulouse

B) Strasbourg

C) Marseille

D) Bordeaux

Answer · why

B) Strasbourg

Strasbourg sits on the German border, so when war broke out in 1939 the city was evacuated and his family, given only hours to pack, had to leave.

Q 03/05

What did Marceau call mime?

A) The art of the mask

B) The art of nothing

C) The art of the body

D) The art of silence

Answer · why

D) The art of silence

The art of silence was his phrase for mime, yet offstage he was famously talkative, joking that you should never get a mime talking because he won't s...

Q 04/05

Marceau named his clown Bip after Pip, the hero of which Charles Dickens novel?

A) Great Expectations

B) David Copperfield

C) Oliver Twist

D) Bleak House

Answer · why

A) Great Expectations

Great Expectations: Marceau went back to Dickens later, making a mime version of A Christmas Carol for BBC television.

Q 05/05

What did Marceau's character Bip wear on his head?

A) A white sailor's cap

B) A battered, flower-topped opera hat

C) A pointed clown's cap with bells

D) A red beret with a pom-pom

Answer · why

B) A battered, flower-topped opera hat

A battered, flower-topped opera hat: with the white face beneath it, it became Marceau's trademark and one of the most familiar images of mime.