Charles Martinet

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Charles Martinet
Date of Birth: September 17, 1955
Home Town: San Jose, California
Occupation: Voice Actor

Charles Martinet is a voice actor working for Nintendo. He is most well known as the voice of Mario, as well as Luigi, Wario and Waluigi. He provided Mario's voice in video games for many years, from the 1990s until he was replaced in 2023.

Biography[edit]

Charles Martinet was born in San Jose, California, and moved a lot in his youth. At different points he lived in Barcelona, Spain and Paris, France, before returning to the San Francisco Bay. At first he wanted to be a lawyer like most of his friends, but another of his friends convinced him to take an acting class. He soon became enchanted by acting and took steps towards becoming a professional actor. He attended the Drama School of London and apprenticed at the Berkley Repository Theatre, and returned to San Francisco to begin his career. He at first participated in over 75 plays in the span of nine years and then starred in various corporate videos. He has had several television and movie roles over the years, as well as several television show pilots that didn’t catch on.

Charles Martinet first became associated with Mario at a trade show in Seattle in 1991. There were auditions for people to perform the voice of Mario. Charles Martinet was alerted of the auditions by a friend and arrived just as the Nintendo people were closing down the booth. He convinced them to let him do a late audition. After being told he was portraying a plumber from Brooklyn, he at first thought of using a stereotypical Brooklyn accent, but he thought it would sound too harsh for children to hear because of how raspy it was, so he tried a lighter and friendlier-sounded Italian accent, which was able to get him the part.

He initially voiced Mario at various trade shows in the 90’s, providing his voice to a talking 3-D Mario head that was displayed in televisions at the trade shows which was called Mario in Real Time. He eventually started voicing Mario in video games, starting with several licensed games: the CD version of Mario Teaches Typing in 1994 and Mario's Game Gallery/Mario's FUNdamentals in 1995. There have also been reports of him providing Mario's voice for a Super Mario Bros. pinball machine that was released in 1992. In 1996, he he starred as Mario in the Nintendo 64 game Super Mario 64, which marked his first time appearing as the character in an official mainstream game. He has gone on to voice most of Mario’s supporting cast, including the characters of Luigi, Wario and Waluigi. He has also continued making public appearances as the characters he portrays, such as when he appeared on G4 in a Mario costume to advertise the release of New Super Mario Bros.. Charles Martinet also continued to do Mario in Real time on-and-off over the years, including periods where he performed equivalents for Luigi, Wario and Donkey Kong. Martinet has also done voiced for other video games over the years.

In 2023, it was announced the Charles Martinet would not longer reprise any of his Mario roles. His roles would be recast, and Martinet would continue to be acknowledged by Nintendo in a role known as Mario Ambassador. The last full games he recorded, which released in 2022, were Mario Strikers: Battle League (his last game for Wario and Waluigi) and Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (his last game for Mario and Luigi). In 2023, he appeared in The Super Mario Bros. Movie as Mario's father and as a friend of the brothers named Giuseppe. Giuseppe acted as an homage to Charles Martinet and to Mario's history, as Martinet voiced him with Mario's game voice, and his design was based on Mario's original design from Donkey Kong. He also had one more Mario line recorded for Mario's Black Suit variant in Mario Kart Tour which went live in August 2023, the day after Martinet's departure was announced. Martinet has also clarified that he is not retired.

Roles[edit]

Nintendo Games[edit]

Mario[edit]

His official web site also indicates that he provides the voice of Donkey Kong, but this seems to be in reference to Donkey Kong in Real Time, which is similar to the Mario in Real Time mentioned above. There was also a Wario in Real Time system.

Other[edit]

Other Nintendo Media[edit]

  • Mario's Dad and Guiseppe (The Super Mario Bros. Movie)

Other Notable Roles[edit]

  • The mascot of Leap Frog and various educational games
  • Over 100 Characters in Sony Wonderfilm and Hallmark Cartoons
  • Magenta (Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero)

Trivia[edit]

  • He has a principle that comedy shouldn’t hurt, so he makes sure his voices are nice and non-threatening.
  • He actually doesn’t know that much Italian, but he is fluent in Spanish and French (likely due to his time in Spain and France during his childhood).
  • His favorite food is sushi.
  • He originated Mario and Luigi's Italian accents. While others were initially cast as Luigi and Wario, Charles Martinet originated the role of Waluigi and was the only voice actor for him until his departure from the Mario series. Donkey Kong also appears to be the only character who he voiced in an In Real Time display and never in any official games.
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