Charles Martinet
| 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.
Biography
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 the licensed game for the PC, Mario’s FUNdamentals. In 1996, he became the official voice of Mario starting in the Nintendo 64 game Super Mario 64. 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..
Roles
Nintendo Games
Mario
- Baby Luigi (starting in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!)
- Baby Mario (starting in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!)
- Clawgrip (Super Mario Advance: Super Mario Bros. 2)
- Luigi (starting in Mario Kart 64)
- Mario (starting in Mario’s FUNdamentals/Super Mario 64)
- Mouser (Super Mario Advance)
- Toadsworth
- Triclyde (Super Mario Advance)
- Waluigi
- Wario (starting in Mario Kart 64)
- Wart (Super Mario Advance: Super Mario Bros. 2)
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
- Boxers/Announcer (Super Punch-Out)
Other Notable Roles
- The mascot of Leap Frog and various educational games
- Over 100 Characters in Sony Wonderfilm and Hallmark Cartoons
Trivia
- 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.