Michael's "dance and movement instructor" was  inspired by the physical comedy of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and the Marx Brothers.  This instructor was Marcel Marceau.  Marceau was a gymnast, actor, dancer, author and mime artist.

After the war, he enrolled in 1946 as a student in Charles Dullin's School of Dramatic Art in the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris, where he studied with teachers like Joshua Smith and the great master, Étienne Decroux, who had also taught Jean-Louis Barrault.

Before beginning his career as a mime, Marcel Marceau performed as a dancer.

Marceau entertained as a mime over the world in order to spread the "art of silence." He first toured the United States in 1955 and 1956.  After an opening engagement at the Phoenix Theater in New York, which received rave reviews, he moved to the larger Barrymore Theater to accommodate the public demand.

Marcel Marceau with President Carter

This first US tour ended with a record-breaking return to standing-room-only crowds in San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and other major cities. His extensive transcontinental tours included South America, Africa, Australia, China, Japan, South East Asia, Russia, and Europe. His last world tour covered the United States in 2004, and returned to Europe in 2005 and Australia in 2006.

Marceau's art became familiar to millions through his many television appearances. He was a favorite guest of Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas and Dinah Shore, and he also had his own one-man show entitled "Meet Marcel Marceau."  He teamed with Red Skelton in three concerts of pantomimes.

As an author, Marceau published two books for children, the Marcel Marceau Alphabet Book and the Marcel Marceau Counting Book, and poetry and illustrations.

In 1969, Marcel Marceau opened his first school, Ecole Internationale de Mime, in the Théàtre de la Musique in Paris. The school was open for two years with fencing, acrobatics, ballet and five teachers of Mime.

In 1995, vocalist, dancer, and choreographer Michael Jackson and Marceau conceived a concert for HBO, but the concert was cancelled because Jackson had collapsed due to a panic attack prior to the concert.  Michael learned many of his moves from Marceau, and from the video footage it looks like Michael's famous moonwalk might have been one of them!

In 2000, Marceau brought his full mime company to New York City for presentation of his new mimodrama, The Bowler Hat.

Thanks to a reader's comment, others who also inspired the moonwalk have been:  Fred Astaire, Bill Bailey, Buck and Bubbles, Cab Calloway, Clark Brothers, Sammy Davis Jr., Daniel L. Haynes, Rubberneck Holmes, Patterson ...