Swiss clown Dimitri dead at 80

Made people laugh and cry: Swiss clown Dimitri

(RDB)

A well-known Swiss entertainer has died at the age of 80. Dimitri Jakob Müller – known simply as Dimitri – was a popular clown and mime.

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His death was confirmed by an agent of his family on Wednesday.

Bo in Ascona in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, Dimitri was just seven when he decided that he wanted to become a clown.

He trained in Paris with Etienne Decroux, performed with the Marcel Marceau troupe, and received accolades for his solo mime act during the 1962 Inteational Mime Festival in Berlin. In 1973, he performed in New York’s Big Apple Circus.

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He and his wife founded a theatre, and he also founded Scuola Teatro Dimitri – a performing arts college. Dimitri was inducted into the Inteational Clown Hall of Fame in 1995.

A national treasure, Dimitri won the SwissAward for culture in 2009 and 2014.

Tribute

Interior Minister Alain Berset paid tribute to Dimitri, saying the clown had marked the cultural life of Switzerland for more than 50 years.

"He was an inspiring and warmhearted person and one of the most important stage artists in the country," he told the Swiss News Agency.

"Switzerland will badly miss his poetic style and his ability to make people laugh. He made us all happy."

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