Louis Vincent Albano (July 29, 1933 – October 14, 2009), was a WWF/E Hall of Fame wrestler-turned-manager and character actor who played the voice of Mario on The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, and played him in the live-action segment as well.
Lou Albano was born in Rome, Italy in July 29, 1933. His family moved to the United States of America preceding his birth. In his adolescence, Albano enjoyed playing football, and after high school, he joined the U.S. Army. At the end of his military career, he was introduced to professional wrestling. He began working in a tag team called the Sicilians, but he got put right off after people started to throw rocks and snowballs at him, and basically he'd had enough.
Another contributing factor is that Mafia members harassed the Sicilians, and demanded that they dissolve because their gig was being too resemblant of the actual Mafia. In addition, he broke his back twice. So he quit.
Voices
- Mario
Later life
He went to work as a manager adding 'Captain' to his name. He managed The Headshrinkers and WWF/E Hall of Famer, the late Andre the Giant and he even had collaboration with Cyndi Lauper, having made appearances in her music video, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.
His collaboration with Cyndi Lauper didn't stop there, however. Albano and Lauper actually went on to appear in the live action segment of "Captain Lou Is Missing", an episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show. In the segment, Lauper burst into Mario and Luigi's office, absolutely distraught. She tells the story of how she and Albano were to be going on a picnic, and instead found nothing but rubber bands for his beard, and a note that read "Dear Cyndi, I'm sorry that I'm not here but I'm gone for good".
Lauper formed a search party with a plethora of volunteers and search teams around the world. However, this turned out to be an epic failure of an idea since no-one could find him. (What a waste of time.) When Mario went out to buy some pizza, Albano showed up - the fliers had redirected him all the way to Mario Brothers Plumbing - and explained that some stupid idiot (i.e. Albano) had ripped the note out incorrectly. It should have read "I've gone for good fried chicken. Back in an hour.".
Lauper was good enough to introduce Albano to Luigi, who was ecstatic regarding the meeting. His ecstasy would have hit the roof had Mario been there to be introduced to Albano since he is Albano's biggest fan, and Luigi worked out that Mario would have been overjoyed to meet him.
Albano didn't further his comeuppances in the Mario series. However, he did a cameo as the Gondolier during the The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode "The Venice Menace".
In 1996, he was inducted into the WWF/E Hall of Fame.
Death
Albano passed away in 2009 after having been under a long period of hospital care. He was mourned by many Mario fans.