Charles Martinet

Charles Andre Martinet^[a] (born September 17, 1955) is an American actor. Martinet is known for creating the voice of Mario in the Super Mario franchise, portraying him from 1991 to 2023. He also voiced other characters in the series such as Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and the baby equivalents of Mario and Luigi, prior to stepping down as voice actor to become an official brand ambassador for the series.

Martinet is also known for his portrayal of Paarthurnax in 2011's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,^[2] as well as Magenta in the Dragon Ball franchise since 2022.

Charles Andre Martinet^[3] was born on September 17, 1955,^[4] in San Jose or Cupertino, California^[1]: 337 to father Jacques René Pierre Martinet.^[5] The younger of two children, he has an older brother, John, though he was taller than him despite being the younger sibling, and while his brother was extroverted, Charles was shy and more anxiety-driven than him in his youth. ^{[6]: 20:16–20:18 [7]} His mother's family had been in the country since the Mayflower voyages,^{[6]: 20:26–20:36} while his father grew up in Paris, France,^[7] and Martinet's paternal grandfather served in World War I under General Pershing in order to get eligibility for American citizenship; they then came to the US when Martinet was a child. This makes him French-American.^{[6]: 20:37–20:51}

His family moved to Barcelona, Spain when he was 12 years old, where he attended an American middle school.^[7][8] In 1969, after 3 years in Spain, they moved to Paris, France.^[7][8] As a result, he became fluent in Spanish and French; he can also speak a little bit of Italian.^[1]: 337 He attended the American School of Paris and graduated in 1974.^[1]: 338

As a young adult, Martinet became interested in international law.^{[1]: 338 [7][9][10]} He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in history or politics.^[7][9] In his senior year, he decided to discontinue his studies after a tutor told him to "regurgitate information he'd written in his book, chapter-by-chapter".^[9] When he was about 20 years old, a friend persuaded him to take acting classes^[1]: 338 to combat his fear of public speaking.^[7][10] His first role was a monologue from the Spoon River Anthology.^[10]

Martinet auditioned for and won an apprenticeship at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.^[1]: 338 After training with the Berkeley Rep for several years, Martinet went to London to attend the Drama Studio London,^{[1]: 338 [10]} where among other skills, he discovered his talent for accents and dialects.^[8] Upon returning to California he joined the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. He went on to become a founding member of the San Jose Repertory Theatre for four years.^[10]

Martinet earned the job as Mario's voice at Nintendo when one day in 1991, he was on the beach and received a call from a friend who told him that there was going to be an audition at a trade show in which auditioneers "talk to people as a plumber". He went to the audition at the last minute as the casting directors were already putting away their equipment. Charles Martinet walked in and asked, "Can I please read for this?". The directors let him audition and told him, "You're an Italian plumber from Brooklyn". At first Martinet planned to talk like a stereotypical Italian American with a deep, raspy voice. He then thought to himself that it would be too harsh for children to hear, so he made it more soft-hearted and friendly, resulting in what Mario's voice is today. Martinet has also stated that he kept on talking with his Mario voice until the audition tape ran out. He says that Gremio from William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew was an inspiration for his portrayal of Mario.

Working for Nintendo since 1991, Martinet started voicing Mario at video game trade shows in which attendees would walk up to a TV screen displaying a 3-D Mario head that was designed to move around the screen and hold full conversations with them.^[9] This system was called Mario in Real-Time or MIRT and was developed by Pasadena based SimGraphics.^[9] Martinet could see the attendees by means of a hidden camera setup, and a facial motion capture rig recorded his mouth movements to synchronize Martinet's mouth movement with the on-screen Mario mouth movement. This digital puppetry, with Martinet's comic performance, was a novelty at the time.^[11]

Martinet's first video game appearance as Mario was in the 1994 CD version of Mario Teaches Typing and formally debuted in the 1995 release of Mario's Game Gallery, where he spoke full dialogue as Mario for extended periods of time to the player.^[12][13]

Most were first exposed to Mario's voice in the landmark 1996 game Super Mario 64.^[14] During his time working through MIRT, Martinet became acquainted with Mario series creator Shigeru Miyamoto. Seeking a professional voice actor for Super Mario 64, Miyamoto had Nintendo contact Martinet to inquire about voicing Mario in the game.^[15] An opportunity he was not expecting, Martinet agreed immediately, making the trip from Sausalito to Bad Animals Studio in Seattle to record for the game. Mostly unscripted, Martinet was given examples of what the teams in Japan were looking for by the producers, in addition to improvisation which lead to the creation of many of Mario's catchphrases. During the recording session, it was wondered what Mario would do when the player leaves him alone. In the end, Martinet came up with the idea that Mario would dream of pasta during his sleep.^{[citation needed]} In the final game, Mario says "night nighty. Ahhh spaghetti, ahhh ravioli, ahhh mamma mia" when in his second sleeping position.

Following Super Mario 64, he would go on to additionally voice Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Metal Mario, Shadow Mario, Mini-Mario Toys, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi and Baby Wario in most games wherein these characters speak. He also voiced the enemies Wart, Mouser, Tryclyde, and Clawgrip in Super Mario Advance. His voice work appears in the English and Japanese language versions of the games. With his work as Mario in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized Martinet for having performed the same character in one hundred different titles, the most of any video game voice actor.^[16]

In February 2021, Martinet said the possibility of reprising his role in the animated The Super Mario Bros. Movie would be a "marvelous thing" and that if he were asked to voice Mario he would "go in and play with great joy and happiness".^[17] Despite this, Chris Pratt was cast as Mario instead, and Martinet appeared briefly for cameo voices of Mario's father and a Brooklyn citizen named Giuseppe.

Martinet provided voiceover acting for the boxers and the announcer in the Super NES title Super Punch-Out!!. He voiced the character Vigoro in Sega's Dreamcast and GameCube role-playing video game, Skies of Arcadia. He did the voice of Homunculus in the Konami PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows game Shadow of Destiny, and provided voices for Reader Rabbit and The ClueFinders games. In 2009, Martinet told That Gaming Site that he wanted to voice Link in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but Shigeru Miyamoto told him that Link would remain without a voice. However, Link's grunts have been voiced by various Japanese voice actors.^[18]

In addition to video game voiceovers, Martinet has worked as a voice actor in commercials, cartoons, and promotions. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) trade show in 2005, Martinet remotely interacted with players from New York in a playable demo of Animal Crossing: Wild World.^[19] Martinet did Mario's voice as the announcer for Pac-Man Vs. on the Nintendo GameCube.^[20]

Other than the Mario series, Martinet has also done work for the video game Cel Damage as the voice of Fowl Mouth, as well as the primary voice work in several educational game series such as LeapFrog.^[21] He also voiced the dragon Paarthurnax in the 2011 video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Orvus in 2009's Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, and narrated the cutscenes and menus for the 2013 video game Runner2^[22] and Runner3, appearing as a hidden playable character in the latter. Martinet also narrated for the 2020 Netflix docuseries High Score.^[23] Martinet provided the voice of Magenta in the English dub of the 2022 anime film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.^[24]

Martinet had stated in 2021 that he wanted to voice Mario for the rest of his life, and also said that he would ask Nintendo to find a successor in the case he would think that he won't be able to do it anymore.^[25] On August 21, 2023, Nintendo of America announced on Twitter that Martinet would be retiring from providing voice acting for the Super Mario games but would continue to work with Nintendo as "Mario Ambassador".^[26][27] Kevin Afghani subsequently took over the role of Mario and Luigi starting with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, as well as Wario beginning with WarioWare: Move It!^[28][29] and Waluigi beginning with Super Mario Party Jamboree.^[30]

As the former voice of Mario, Martinet has become a well-known personality and has made public appearances at several video game related events where he meets fans for chat, photographs, and autographs. He has made regular appearances at game events such as Electronic Entertainment Expo, Gamescom, and the Eurogamer Expo, and at launch events of games like Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel.^[31]

In 2013, Martinet was evicted from his home in Sausalito, California following a legal dispute with the family of the recently deceased landlord. Dissatisfied with other homes in his price range, Martinet remained homeless for the next five years, focusing his time on game events.^[32]

Martinet, having spent a large portion of his youth in Europe, speaks fluent French and Spanish, as well as some Italian. He resides in the Netherlands with his partner.^[32]

• CharlesMartinet.com
• Charles Martinet at IMDb
• Short clip of Martinet's Mario voice acting
• Podcast Interview for Scene World Magazine