FACTBOX: Five facts about French mime artist Marcel Marceau

PARIS (Reuters) - The world's best-known mime artist, Marcel Marceau, has died at the age of 84, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon's office said on Sunday.

Below are five facts about Marceau.

* Marceau created the figure of Bip, a melancholy, engaging clown with a limp red flower in his hat, 60 years ago this year

* He formed his own mime company in 1948, and the troupe was soon touring European countries, presenting mime dramas. The company failed financially in 1959, but was revived as a school, the Ecole Internationale de Mimodrame, in 1984.

* A veteran of dozens of films that helped make him a household name across the globe, one of his best remembered roles was a speaking cameo in "Silent Movie", made by U.S. director Mel Brooks

* Marceau was born in the Alsatian town of Strasbourg on March 22, 1923. He was brought up in Lille, where his father was a butcher. When World War Two came, his father was taken hostage and later killed by the invading Nazis and in 1944 Marcel joined his elder brother in the Resistance.

* His comic and tragic sketches appeal on a universal level, with each audience interpreting his performance in its own way. "Mime, like music, knows neither borders nor nationalities," he said. "If laughter and tears are the characteristics of humanity, all cultures are steeped in our discipline."