Sad news this morning for retro buffs…if you remember the eighties wrestling era, or even the strange-in-retrospect aspects of the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, you’ll remember Captain Lou Albano.  He passed away yesterday at the age of seventy six.

There was no doubt that this man, who played Mario in the show above, as well as Cyndi Lauper’s dad in the “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” music video, was a staple of the 1980s.  He enjoyed playing the flamboyant rather than the heavy, and was often seen with a wild goatee managed–barely–by a rubber band as well as half-open Hawaiian shirts.  In fact, his seventy-fifth birthday party turned into an insane, drunken melee that ended with a couple of arrests.

Frankly, I hadn’t heard or seen much about Captain Lou for the last decade, but hearing about it now brings back a flood of memories that make today just a little extra poignant for me.  This guy was Mario long before Bob Hoskins tried it in the abortive attempted movie.  I’ve got a clip below for the Super Mario Brothers Super Show (there are horrendously many on YouTube), so let’s play our own Captain Lou Albano out.