Charles Martinet

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"Charles" redirects here. For the historical writer in Mario's Time Machine, see Charles Dickens. For the historical scientist in Mario's Time Machine, see Charles-Gaspard de la Rive.
Charles Martinet
File:CM Columbus.jpg
Born September 17, 1955 (age 69)
Super Mario–related role(s) Current voice actor for Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, etc.
“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 an American actor and voice actor best known for his voices in the Mario franchise. He voices several major characters, including Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Baby Wario, Metal Mario, the male bosses in Super Mario Advance, and many other male characters in the Mario series. He also voices some members of the Koopa Troop, such as Goombas, Bob-ombs, Monty Moles, Whomps, and Thwomps, all of which use pitch-shifted versions of Mario's voice samples from Super Mario 64. The Internet Movie Database attributes over 150 works to Martinet in total. In addition to English, Martinet speaks fluent French and Spanish, as well as some Italian.[1]

At the time of his audition, Charles Martinet had never heard of Mario or Nintendo.[2] Martinet originally was not invited to audition for the role of Mario; according to him, he crashed the auditions and was asked to do an Italian accent. His recordings left so much of an impression that they were the only ones sent to Nintendo.[3][dead link] As a former Shakespearean actor, Martinet has stated that Mario's voice was based on his voice for Gremio, a character from The Taming of the Shrew.[4]

Martinet was flown to SimGraphics in South Pasadena the next day[5] to be fitted for the Mario in Real Time system, wherein he had motion sensors attached 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 hidden camera and talked to them as Mario, used rather often by Nintendo for promotional events.[6] He would not start voicing Mario in games until the 1994 CD release of Mario Teaches Typing (featuring an altered form of Mario in Real Time), which, while the first video game to have Mario portrayed by Martinet, has been contested by the Super Mario Bros. pinball machine in 1992,[7] although no reliable source has been given to this claim.

Though he does not voice Mario and Luigi in the The Super Mario Bros. Movie by Illumination and Universal Pictures, he provides the voices of their father and Giuseppe in various languages.

Portrayals

Quotes

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Gallery

Promotional images

Events

Miscellaneous

Trivia

  • In Mario Party, Super Smash Bros., Mario Golf, and Mario Party 2, as well as the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64,[15] his surname is misspelled as "Martinee", a mistranslation likely caused by how his name is pronounced.
  • Martinet has been recognized by the Guinness World Records as providing the "most video game voiceover performances as the same character" (at least 100 as Mario, as of the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate).[16]
  • In 1994's Super Punch-Out!!, Charles Martinet voiced the majority of the boxers. In addition to this, that same year, he also offered up several ideas in voicing Link, before being turned down by Shigeru Miyamoto.[17]

References

External links