Super Mario is probably the most well-known character in gaming and has easily become a pop culture staple. He’s beloved by many because of his “let’s-a-go” attitude and can-do spirit. Most fans think of Charles Martinet’s take on the character when Mario comes up, which makes sense since he’s played him in over 200 different titles, but there are a surprising handful of actors who have portrayed the gaming mascot. Each of them have been great in their own way, but others have captured the feeling of the character more than others. Because of that, let’s take a look at how each of Mario’s English voice actors rank among each other.

Peter Cullen

Peter Cullen is most famous for voicing Optimus Prime in Transformers and Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh, so it may surprise some people that he once voiced everyone’s favorite Italian plumber. Cullen voiced Mario in a 1980s cartoon called Saturday Supercade that featured adaptations of many arcade games. This was before Mario’s voice and personality were as fleshed out, so Cullen’s performance felt a bit generic. The animation and audio quality of Saturday Supercade also weren’t the best, so it’s even tougher to get a grasp on his Mario voice.

Walker Boone

Walker Boone portrayed Mario in a 1990 cartoon awkwardly titled The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. Boone gave the character a deep raspy voice that other actors would later use but gradually improve upon. This version of Mario sounds like it was rough on the actor’s throat. Plus, Boone’s regular voice was still noticeable at times.

Marc Graue

Marc Graue provided the voice of Mario for the hilariously terrible puzzle game Hotel Mario that was released on the Phillips CD-i. Graue also uses a raspy voice, but with a bit of a higher pitch than others who went that route. He also sounds much more chipper than the likes of Walker Boone’s Mario, which is a quality that Mario has come to embody. Graue’s Mario is like a hybrid between the raspy Brooklyn accent and the high-pitched excitement that modern Mario uses. It’s too bad that Graue was given such an awkwardly written script to work with.

Bob Hoskins

Bob Hoskins, known for starring in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Hook, portrayed Mario in the first big screen adaptation of the video games. He also played him entirely in live action. 1993’s Super Mario Bros. is an entertainingly bad film and is wildly different from the source material, but Hoskins does give it his all for his performance. He overall does a great job. That being said, this take on Mario is more of a grumpy middle-aged guy than he is the optimistic hero fans know him as. If anything, this version is more similar to his character in Roger Rabbit than it is Mario. That being said, it’s still a good performance.

Chris Pratt

Chris Pratt voiced Mario in 2023’s The Super Mario Movie. His approach is a little on the generic side, but it overall works. Pratt’s Mario voice sounds like a realistic modern Brooklyn accent without going too over-the-top with it. It’s not very cartoony for an animated movie. It’s a safe way to go about doing Mario’s voice, but it works for the story since he’s an everyman from Brooklyn who gets transported to the magical land of the Mushroom Kingdom. Pratt may not alter his voice a whole lot, but he is expressive with it like we’ve seen in The LEGO Movie and Onward.

‘Captain’ Lou Albano

Former professional wrestler “Captain” Lou Albano played Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! which aired in the late 80s and early 90s. For the series, he played the character in both animation and live action and did a fantastic job for both. He used a deep raspy voice like several other incarnations of the character, but was much more expressive, upbeat, and wacky. He was an ideal TV personality to entertain young audiences. Plus, his “Do The Mario” dance at the end of each episode was simply iconic.

Charles Martinet

Charles Martinet is hands down the most known voice of Super Mario. He’s given the Italian plumber the iconic voice that everyone knows and loves. He’s played the character over 200 times and there are no signs of him stopping any time soon. His Mario voice has helped shape Mario and his personality to what fans know him as. There may have been a handful of actors who have played Mario, but Charles Martinet will always be THE Mario.