Charles Martinet
- “Ah, that Charles Martinet. Nice Italian boy.”
- —Mario, Mario vs. Donkey Kong
Charles Martinet (last name pronounced mar-tin-AY), born September 17, 1955 in San Jose, California, is the prominent voice actor of the Mario games. He plays the major characters Mario, Luigi, Wario (as well as their baby counterparts), Waluigi and Toadsworth. Martinet also plays minor characters, such as Wart and other bosses from Super Mario Bros. 2 as well. Martinet plays the vast majority of the male characters in the Mario series. The Internet Movie Database attributes over seventy works to Martinet in total. Martinet speaks fluent French and Spanish, but, ironically, only a little Italian.
Martinet's first job voicing Mario began in 1994, when he had motion sensors hooked to his face, which transposed his facial movements to a computer-generated Mario head on a screen. Martinet watched people passing by the screen through a surveillance camera and talked to them as Mario. This was used rather often by Nintendo when attending trade shows. An altered form of Mario in Real Time appeared in 1995's Mario's FUNdamentals, with Martinet's voice, though most consider Mario's voice debut to be Super Mario 64 in 1996.
Mario character roles
- Mario
- Luigi
- Wario
- Waluigi
- Baby Mario
- Baby Luigi
- Toadsworth
- Donkey Kong (1996-2005)
- Metal Mario
- Donkey Kong Jr. (Mario Tennis)
- Dr. Mario
- Shadow Mario
- Clawgrip (Super Mario Advance)
- Tryclyde (Super Mario Advance)
- Mouser (Super Mario Advance)
- Fryguy (Super Mario Advance)
- Wart (Super Mario Advance)
- Mini Mario
- Baby Wario
- MC Ballyhoo (Mario Party 8)
- Big Top (Mario Party 8)
Trivia
- In Mario Party, Mario Party 2, the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64, and Super Smash Bros., the credits mention him as "Charles Martinee".
- Martinet originally wasn't invited to audition for the role of Mario. He crashed the auditions, and was asked to do an Italian accent until he ran out of things to say. He left so much of an impression at the recording that his tape was the only one sent to Nintendo.
