Charles Martinet is retiring as the voice actor who brought Mario and Luigi to life in Nintendo video game titles since the mid-1990s. The news was shared by the company via Twitter on Monday, August 21. Nintendo further clarified in a statement made to IGN and Eurogamer that Martinet did not work on Super Mario Bros. Wonder, coming to Switch on October 20.
Martinet, age 67, first got into acting while attending UC Berkeley, where he intended to study international law. He trained with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and then the Drama Studio London. He achieved his immortal role with a trade show audition for “an Italian plumber for Brooklyn,” for which he pulled inspiration from Shakespeare’s ‘Gremio’ in The Taming of the Shrew.
The actor worked for Nintendo from 1991, voicing Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi and several other iterations and villain characters. He provided cameo and multilingual voice over for this year’s Illumination blockbuster The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Fans will also recognize him as the English dub voice of Magenta in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
We have a message for fans of the Mushroom Kingdom. Please take a look. pic.twitter.com/U1ASicOuTO
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) August 21, 2023
