Maruse Taro (''マルセ太郎'', 6 December 1933 in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

- 22 January 2001 in Tokyo) was a Japanese

mime artist A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...

, comedian,

vaudevillian Vaudeville (; ) is a theatre, theatrical genre of variety show, variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comic ...

and movie star. His true name was Masanori Kimbara (金原正周) or Kim Kyun-hong (,

Hanja Hanja (; ), alternatively spelled Hancha, are Chinese characters used to write the Korean language. After characters were introduced to Korea to write Literary Chinese, they were adapted to write Korean as early as the Gojoseon period. () ...

: 金均洚), however the famous pantomime artist

Marcel Marceau Marcel Marceau (; born Marcel Mangel; 22 March 1923 – 22 September 2007) was a French mime artist and actor most famous for his stage persona, "Bip the Clown". He referred to mime as the "art of silence", performing professionally worldwide ...

was the influence for his vaudevillian name.

Biography

Maruse was born in Osaka, Ikuno, where there is a large

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

population especially in the

Ikuno Korea Town is a Koreatown in Ikuno-ku, Osaka, Ikuno-ku, Osaka, Japan. It is one of the largest Koreatowns in the country and a significant tourist attraction, with around two million visitors in 2021. The area has previously gone by a number of names, alth ...

area. His father and grandfather are also from the

Korean Peninsula Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Dem ...

. After graduation from high school, he moved to

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

and began working as a new wave actor. Maruse gained a reputation amongst audiences for miming

ape Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a superfamily of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and Europe in prehistory, and counting humans are found global ...

s with advanced techniques.

External links

Japanese male stage actors 1933 births 2001 deaths People from Ikuno, Osaka People from Osaka Zainichi Korean people Japanese people of Korean descent Naturalized citizens of Japan {{japan-stage-actor-stub