Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Marcel Marceau, the French mime internationally known for white-faced clown ``Bip,'' has died, the French government said.

``With Marcel Marceau, France loses one of its most eminent ambassadors,'' President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an e-mailed statement today.

Marceau died yesterday at age 84, and details of the funeral arrangements and burial at Paris's Pere Lachaise cemetery will be given out later, Marceau's daughter Camille told Agence France- Presse.

``His stories without words granted Marcel Marceau a rare talent, the ability to communicate with everyone, beyond the barrier of language,'' French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said today in a statement of condolences.

Born Marcel Mangel in 1923 in Strasbourg, France, the future entertainer and his family fled the Nazis when he was a teenager, according to a biography on the U.S. National Public Radio's Web site. He changed his name to Marceau and joined the resistance movement.

Marceau, in an interview in Le Monde in 1997, said the first Charlie Chaplin film that he saw as a child, ``The Gold Rush,'' was ``a revelation. I didn't laugh. I cried.'' He told the newspaper that he put together his first acting troupe at age 10 and that during his time in hiding with other youths during World War II he became monitor of dramatic arts.

`Mimodramas'

In 1946, Marceau signed up for classes at the School of Dramatic Art in Paris, where he studied mime with Etienne Decroux and developed his own complete productions, known as ``mimodramas.''

Marceau made his North American debut at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada and toured the U.S. in 1955-1956, where he quickly attained fame, according to the NPR biography.

``Because of Bip, my troupe was able to eat,'' he said in the 1997 interview with Le Monde. ``I went to the U.S. for two weeks in 1955, and the success was so big that I stayed for six months.''

He said the name Bip was inspired by the character Pip in the novel ``Great Expectations'' by Charles Dickens.

Marceau performed on stage, TV and film, and his only speaking line -- ``non'' -- was in ``Silent Movie,'' a Mel Brooks comedy.

Marceau and the City of Paris founded the Ecole Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris Marcel Marceau in 1978.

To contact the reporter on this story: Adria Cimino in Paris at acimino1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 23, 2007 10:08 EDT