Clown Howard Buten, best known for his character “Buffo,” died on Friday, January 3 at the age of 74, his companion and translator told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday. He was the author of a dozen books, including the best-selling title When I Was Five I Killed Myself.

Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1950, the American artist, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, passed away “peacefully in his sleep” in Plomodiern (Brittany, north-western France) where he lived, Jacqueline Huet, who translated some of his books, told AFP.

With his white face, red nose, mittens and long black shoes, Buffo the clown was instantly recognizable. Under this disguise, Buten always provoked the same amount of amusement and laughter from the audience, with silent sketches, little dance tricks, awkward gestures and bewildered looks.

Artist turned doctor of clinical psychology

This whimsical character, who was also a dancer, singer and musician, made his name in his home country in a music-hall act that grew longer over the years. By the 1970s, he had already given a thousand performances. Buffo carried with him his musical instruments (violin, piano, trumpet), his vindictive plastic chicken, and his recalcitrant household utensils. He was even a ventriloquist for a time.

Buten, from a Lithuanian family who had emigrated to the US, moved to France in 1981 with the release of his first book, When I Was Five I Killed Myself. But this artist was much more than that: in 1986, he became a doctor of clinical psychology and devoted himself to autistic children in the Paris suburbs of Saint-Denis at the Adam Shelton Center that he founded in 1996. Some of his other books, such as Through the Glass Wall: A Therapist’s Lifelong Journey to Reach the Children of Autism and Ces enfants qui ne viennent pas d’une autre planète : les autistes (“Children who are not from another planet: The autistic”), also tackle this subject. His autobiography Buffo was his last book, published in 2005.

In 1998, he won a Molière award for best one-man-show for a performance with cellist Claire Oppert. He was made a Knight of Arts and Letters in 1991. His companion said that “a tribute will be paid to him later in Paris.”