Lou Albano

Louis Vincent Albano (July 29, 1933 – ), often referred to as Captain Lou Albano, is an ex-wrestler who portrayed Mario in the live action segments of the The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and voiced him in the cartoon. He worked alongside Danny Wells, who portrayed Luigi.

Wrestling History
Albano started as a pro wrestler back in the 50's. He was turning 19 or 20 and he felt it was a way of making a living. People started throwing rocks and snowballs at him and he thought, "This is ridicules, I'm gonna get myself killed." So he became a good guy or (as they call in wrestling) a babyface he ended up breaking his back twice. So he decided to stop wrestling and work as a manager and he managed The Headshrinkers, Andre the Giant and he even appeared in Cyndi Lauper's music video,"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

History


Captain Lou appeared as himself in the live-action segment "Captain Lou Is Missing". In the segment, Cyndi Lauper announced that Captain Lou had gone missing when she had planned to go on a picnic lunch with him, and instead found rubber bands for his beard and a note that read "Dear Cyndi, I'm sorry that I'm not here but I've gone for good".

Cyndi formed a search party with Mario and Luigi at Mario Brothers Plumbing along with several volunteers and search teams stationed around the world, which ultimately failed. When Mario went out to pick some pizza, Captain Lou showed up and met Luigi. When Cyndi asked him why he said he left, Lou saw his note and said that part of it had been cut off and the last part should've read "I've gone for good fried chicken. Back in an hour.". Captain Lou then explained that he had gotten tired of waiting for Cyndi to arrive at his house afterwards, so he went out, saw fliers about his disappearance, and followed them all the way to Mario Brothers Plumbing.

Cyndi introduced Captain Lou to Luigi, who was thrilled to meet him, although Luigi would've been happier if Mario had been there to meet him as well. When Captain Lou and Cyndi left, Luigi figured that Mario was going to be very disappointed for not getting to meet Captain Lou, as he claimed Mario was his biggest fan.

Although Captain Lou never made an appearance in the Mario series beyond The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, he, along with several other famous people of Italian descent did receive a mention from the Gondolier during The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode "The Venice Menace".