Charles Martinet has been the voice of Mario for quite some time now, but he's not the only actor to bring the famous character to life. In the early '90s, Mario was voiced by Walker Boone, who would provide his vocal talents to both The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World cartoon shows, from 1990 and 1991 respectively.
Sadly, Boone – whose real name was Theodore Nicoloff – passed away at the end of January of this year, but his death has gone largely unnoticed until today. He was 76.
Boone was born on May 4th, 1944 and attended McGill Law School before embarking on a teaching career in London and Toronto. He then made a name for himself in various American television shows, including Star Trek: The Next Generation, War of the Worlds, Highlander: The Raven and Due South.
Optimus Prime voice actor Peter Cullen was the first to give Mario a voice, playing the character in 1983's Saturday Supercade. Lou Albano, who was the voice of Mario prior to Boone (in 1989's The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!), sadly passed away in 2009. The late Bob Hoskins played the character in the troubled live-action 1993 movie.
Super Mario's voice is something of a hot topic right now; we're getting a Super Mario movie soon, but it hasn't been confirmed that Martinet is voicing the character. We do know, however, that comedian Sebastian Maniscalco is involved – he recently confirmed he was playing the role of Spike, Mario and Luigi's boss from Wrecking Crew.
[source aftercare.org, via twitter.com]
Comments 40
Condolences to his loved ones.
Did the article state why his death went unnoticed for 6 months? Or did I miss that somewhere? This article mentions a guys death, talks about it for a paragraph, then adds two more paragraphs of unrelated material, talking about other celebrities to flesh it out. Could we get some actual information, or is that not available?
@BloodNinja it's likely his family didn't make a public statement until recently so they could grieve privately.
@BloodNinja
I'm guessing they just mean that it was not reported on in entertainment sites like this - discussed in relation to his work.
I don't think it's a case of his body being found 6 months later or anything like that - I'm not sure if that's what you meant though. There are tributes on that obituary going back to February.
@Splodge I’m not trying to insert any explanation, I’m simply asking for one.
multiple men behind the moustache have fallen now ☹ it feels like all who's left is Martinet, and he's not exactly a young man. feels bad, man.
His voice work as cartoon Mario was excellent and doesn't sound wimpy like the one Nintendo use for the games nowadays. RIP Mr. Boone, thanks for brightening my childhood.
@Specter_of-the_OLED Peach sounded less pathetic in the cartoon too!
@CharlieGirl .. unless he's the one going around killing off all the other Mario's..!!
@BloodNinja Contrary to your need for a reason, his family has rights to privacy. Since he didn't have a giant profile, it probably wasn't all that hard to keep it with his loved ones and family. He may have wanted it that way too. No one need to give you an explanation for their (or let alone his) reasons.
For example, no one knew about Neal Peart's (Rush) fight with brain cancer. It was left private between family, his bandmates, close friend and VERY select colleagues. Peart didn't want any media, and fan, attention while he was fighting to stay alive. While the shock was terrible, but I as a fan have zero rights into Peart's personal life and it was his choice. I respect it.
@progx I don’t need a reason, and if privacy is your issue, then maybe direct that at the people reporting this stuff for public consumption. If privacy was the reason, it would have been nice if the person who wrote the article stated so. That would have been enough. Instead, the article barely makes mention of the man and his life, doesn’t even link any meaningful examples of his work...and goes on to mention several other unrelated celebrities, instead. The man dies, and this site gives him a paragraph. Clearly, my beef is with the article and not with the recently deceased’s remaining family. It even ends with a plug for a stupid Mario movie, pretty shameless to use a mans death as an opportunity to talk about that.
@CharlieGirl
Nintendo needs to start thinking about a successor for Martinet. Maybe even have Martinet start training a replacement...
the Nintendo way would more likely just be hire someone who sounds "close enough" and not care though...
I love NL, but this is a pretty insensitive article. It would have been nice to just focus on Mr. Boone, without the paragraphs about other Mario voice actors and the film. The silly Mario picture at the start is also a bit crass. A man has died, come on.
Get ahold of yourselves in the comments and have some damn respect, please…
All the Marios are dying on us!! Plus, I loved Mario's voice on Mario 3 and Mario World! Please stay with us, Charles!!
We've lost a legend today. Well technically a few months ago, but nevertheless, this is saddening news.
@Jayenkai Too soon.
@HotGoomba Sorry. Dark sense of humour. apologises
His voice is firmly stuck in my head as I used to watch the SMB3 and SMW cartoons on NBC Saturday Mornings. RIP, sir.
Great cartoon actually captured the Mario experience. Such a shame R.I.P.
@marandahir I've been thinking about that, too. What will the mustachioed characters sound like once Martinet eventually passes? Not to be too morbid, but it's something deserving of consideration. I miss gruff, middle aged, New Yorker Mario.
I wonder if the Mario cartoons would cause controversy today, with all the pasta and meatball references in the cartoon.
I'll have to watch "The Yoshi Shuffle" later on Paramount Plus. That had some great lines, like...
"It's a stone, Luigi! You didn't make it!"
And...
"What do you mean catch the ball? You WERE the ball!"
Rest in peace, Boone. I loved his voice as a kid and it's sad to hear of his passing.
I agree with @Bloodninja the last piece of this article is harsh.
Rest in peace Boone.
Not to be totally harsh on this, but usually when an actor has died at an advanced age, it usually is termed as natural causes. Why it puzzles me that they had reported this 6 months after his death, I get it’s because of the family wanted privacy, I get that. But they could’ve at least gotten some info out to the public on the cause of death. Could’ve been cancer, or some infection.
Anyways, it’s truly sad, although I didn’t know the guy at all, may he be at peace with Lou Albano, Bob Hoskins, and Danny Wells
@KingBowser Don't forget Tony Rosato. He died too. He was Luigi.
Loved that show man, Its really sad to hear.
@Ooyah @BloodNinja I really didn't like that ether, I was reading it and then It goes on to talk about another article of there's, like damn!
Literally everyone other than Charles Martient that played Mario has died.
Crass, insensitive article
RIP Walker Boone
BTW he died of natural causes, but the family wanted to keep in quiet and only announced it publically 2 days ago.
@Snatcher Yeah, very tacky!
May God bless and be with and everyone that he loved. Rest in peace Walker Boone 🙏
RIP Mr. Boone, my condolences to your family and thank you for bringing a childhood character to life.
@Jayenkai Rude
@YoshiAngemon Yeah, I kinda forgot about him. Didn’t he die just recently in 2019?
I still prefer Albano and Boone's voice acting over Martinet's. Maybe I'm biased because I grew up at a time when the Mario cartoons were a thing, but Martinet's voice always seemed weak, effeminate and miscast for the role. It was especially jarring after having spent so many years listening to Mario speak relatively gruffly, in a Brooklyn accent.
Needless to say, I think Boone did an excellent job here, and it is sad to hear of his passing. I agree with others that the tone of this article was a bit crass, but it's fine.
@KingBowser 2017, actually.
I actually preferred Mario with this guy voicing him in the cartoons. I thought it was silly when Nintendo decided to give Mario the voice of a high-pitched eunuch in their games.
@Ravenmaster Thank you! I mean, it's fine for the games where Mario's voice is basically just an audio cue that you either pulled off a jump correctly or did something wrong. But I definitely won't bother with this if Martinet is doing a whole movie's worth of that trite nonsense.
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