Mario Segale, Inspiration For Nintendo's Hero Plumber, Has Died
Mario Segale, who inspired the plucky plumber Mario — one of the most recognizable characters in the world, let alone in video games — has died at age 84. Segale was Nintendo's landlord outside Seattle when the company created Donkey Kong, the classic game that launched the overalls-wearing Mario.
[...] The Mario character went on to become a franchise, appearing in dozens of games, from car racing to tennis. He also shared a game cartridge with Nintendo's other classic hit, Duck Hunt (we've clarified this point in the story to avoid confusion).
Also at BBC.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 03 2018, @04:54PM
Base on what I heard the story actually went like this, the original Jumpman sprite looked like NoA's landlord, so they ended up using the name Mario instead of Jumpman.