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 (MIRT) 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.
Characters Martinet has portrayed
- Mario
- Luigi
- Baby Mario
- Baby Luigi
- Wario
- Waluigi
- Metal Mario (Mario Kart 7)
- Toadsworth
- Baby Wario (Yoshi's Island DS)
- Clawgrip (Super Mario Advance)
- Tryclyde (Super Mario Advance)
- Mouser (Super Mario Advance)
- Wart (Super Mario Advance)
