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March 22 (UPI) -- Wednesday's Google Doodle celebrates the 100th birthday of silent mime artist Marcel Marceau, who used his skills to entertain and comfort at least 70 Jewish children he helped smuggle out of Nazi-occupied France during World War II. A fan of silent films, Marceau began his career by doing impersonations of famous actors.
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He studied acting and mime at the School of Dramatic Art of the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris after the war, and introduced his iconic character Bip the Clown in 1947.
The animated Google Doodle pays homage to the character's signature look of striped shirt and white face paint, and shows him leaning on an invisible box and struggling to push and pull an object that isn't there.
"Bip explored the range of human emotions and his actions spoke louder than words could," the Google website said.
"Soon after, [Marceau] founded the Compagnie de Mime Marcel Marceau, the only pantomime company in the world at the time, to develop the art of silence."
Marceau toured the world as a mime, won an Emmy for his appearance on The Max Liebman Show of Shows and played Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1973 screen adaptation of A Christmas Carol. He also appeared in the films Barbarella, Shanks and Silent Movie, and was the author of two children's books.
He died in 2007 at the age of 84.
