Mario Segale was a successful builder who lived in the state of Washington, USA. In 1980, Mario Segale rented a warehouse to Nintendo of America. Around that time, Shigeru Miyamoto created the characters Jumpman and his girlfriend Lady, but Nintendo did not agree with the names, as it wanted real names for the characters, so they decided to name their character Jumpman “Mario,” in honor of Segale; Lady, in turn, had her name inspired by Mrs. Pauline, who was the wife of a Nintendo of America employee.
Segale always avoided becoming known as the “man who inspired the name of Super Mario” for fear that it would harm his business ventures. In 1993, the Seattle Times asked how Segale felt about his name inspiring the Super Mario character, and Segale joked: “You can say I’m still waiting for my royalty checks.”
Mr. Segale’s obituary says:
“While he was the inspiration for the name of Nintendo’s ‘Super Mario’ from when they were tenants in his business park in the 1970s, he always shied away from notoriety and wanted to be known for what he accomplished in his life.”
Mario Segale lived with his wife Donna and was the father of 4 children and 9 grandchildren.
SavePoint Team
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