Mario Segale: the man after whom Mario was named (5 photos)

The famous video game character Mario had a real-life inspiration. This is entrepreneur Mario Segale, whose story is fascinating and unique. Let's find out how Mario Segale and Nintendo ended up connected.





Mario Segale was born on April 30, 1934 in Seattle, Washington, USA, the only child of Louis and Rina Segale, first-generation Italian immigrant farmers. After graduating from high school, instead of going to college, Mario decided to start his own construction business. He only owned one truck at the time, but that decision launched him into a successful career in construction and real estate.



In 1957, at the age of 23, Mario Segale married his beloved Donna - and his wife joined him in running the business. Together they expanded it significantly. By 1998, Segale's construction company had grown, and a little later he sold it to an Irish corporation for $60 million. After that, he completely switched to the real estate sector, in which he began to make great progress.





How did Mario Segale and Nintendo end up connected? In 1981, Nintendo was developing the Donkey Kong arcade game in Tukwila in a warehouse rented from Segale. Initially, the main character of the game was simply called “Jumpman”, but due to one situation they decided to change the name. One day, the company did not pay the rent on time, which is why Segale had a long discussion with them. The situation was resolved amicably, and as a sign of respect to their landlord, Nintendo decided to rename the Jumpman character Mario. When that same character became a global phenomenon, Mario Segale himself avoided public attention. He continued to run his business, Segale Properties, with his wife and son.



The Super Mario character, which was originally part of the Donkey Kong game, quickly became the face of Nintendo and a symbol of gaming culture. Mario Segale himself died at the age of 84, in 2018, at his estate in Washington state. The entrepreneur never commented on his connection with the video game: only in 1993, he joked in an interview that he was “still waiting for a fee” for using his name - but in fact he never demanded anything.