28 Facts About Charles Martinet

Charles Martinet is an American actor, who has been portraying both Mario and Luigi in the Super Mario video game series since 1991.

Charles Martinet is the voice of other characters in the series such as Wario, Waluigi, and their baby equivalents.

Charles Martinet, having spent a large portion of his youth in Europe, speaks fluent French and Spanish, as well as some Italian.

Charles Martinet was born on September 17,1955, in San Jose, California.

Charles Martinet's family moved to Barcelona when he was 12 years old, and later to Paris.

Charles Martinet attended the American School of Paris and graduated in 1974.

Charles Martinet attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he originally intended to study international law.

Charles Martinet's first role was a monologue from the Spoon River Anthology.

Charles Martinet went on to become a founding member of the San Jose Repertory Theatre for four years.

Charles Martinet earned the job as Mario's voice at Nintendo when, one day, he was told by his friend that there was going to be an audition at a trade show in which auditioneers "talk to people as a plumber".

Charles Martinet went to the audition at the last minute as the casting directors were already putting away their equipment.

At first Charles Martinet planned to talk like a stereotypical Italian American with a deep, raspy voice.

Charles Martinet 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.

Charles Martinet has stated that he kept on talking with his Mario voice until the audition tape ran out.

Charles Martinet says that Gremio from William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew was an inspiration for his portrayal of Mario.

An opportunity he was not expecting, Charles Martinet agreed immediately, making the trip from Sausalitio to Bad Animals Studio in Seattle to record for the game.

Mostly unscripted, Charles Martinet was given examples of what the teams in Japan were looking for by the producers, in addition to improvization which lead to the creation of many of Mario's catchphrases.

Charles Martinet voiced the enemies Wart, Mouser, Tryclyde, and Clawgrip in Super Mario Advance.

Ultimate, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized Charles Martinet for having performed the same character in one hundred different titles, the most of any video game voice actor.

Charles Martinet voiced the character Vigoro in Sega's Dreamcast and GameCube role-playing video game, Skies of Arcadia.

Charles Martinet 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, Charles 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.

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show in 2005, Charles Martinet remotely interacted with players from New York in a playable demo of Animal Crossing: Wild World.

Charles Martinet did Mario's voice as the announcer for Pac-Man Vs on the Nintendo GameCube.

Charles Martinet provided the voice of Magenta in the English dub of the 2022 anime film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.

Charles Martinet 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.

In 2013, Charles Martinet was evicted from his home in Sausalito following a legal dispute with the family of the recently deceased landlord.

Dissastified with other homes in his pay range, Charles Martinet remained homeless for the next 5 years, focusing his time on events such as these.