Mario Segale, Namesake Of Super Mario, Has Passed Away

TheGamer

By Josh Coulson

Published Nov 6, 2018

Mario Segale, the man after which iconic video game character Super Mario was named, has passed away at the age of 84.

Super Mario aficionados among you will know where exactly the famous Italian plumber originated. The first time he ever appeared in a video game was almost three decades ago. Mario's only task back then was to ascend to the top of some scaffolding in order to save his princess, all while Donkey Kong was rolling barrels at him to slow him down or take him out.

The even bigger aficionados reading this will know when he first appeared in Donkey Kong, he was not called Mario. The plumber, who may not have even had that occupation at the time, was simply known as Jumpman back then. He got his name during the early 1980s and was named after a man known as Mario Segale.

Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo of America created the character but couldn't come up with a name. Mr. Segale was renting a warehouse to Nintendo at the time in his hometown Tukwila, Washington. Clearly, he got on well with his tenants as they decided to name Jumpman after him. He would obviously go on to become the most iconic video game character of all time.

Sadly, on October 27th, Mr. Segale passed away, as reported by Kotaku. The man after which Super Mario was named was 84 years old. He never wanted recognition for his link to the video game world, hence why you have likely never heard of him before now. Segale was in the construction business and he believed that if news of his links to Nintendo and Mario were common knowledge, it would damage his business reputation.

Even without the recognition that could have come along with it, it must have been pretty cool to know that you were the inspiration behind the name for one of the most beloved fictional characters in the world. We wonder whether Segale ever really played the games his namesake made famous. He apparently loved to hunt and fish, however, we don't know whether he was an avid video gamer or not.