Mario Segale, the namesake for Nintendo’s Mario character and a successful American real estate developer, passed away on October 27, Kotaku has learned. Segale was surrounded by his family in Tukwila, Washington. He was 84. Segale developed office buildings and malls in Washington state and, in 1998, sold his construction services company to an Irish organization for $60 million.
In 1981, Segale was renting a Tukwila warehouse to Nintendo of America. Shigeru Miyamoto had created the Mario character for his game Donkey Kong, but was calling him Jumpman and his girlfriend Lady. Nintendo wanted proper names for the characters, so they named the hero after their landlord and the lady Pauline after a Nintendo of America employee’s wife.
