Mario Matthew Cuomo (/ˈkwoʊmoʊ/, Italian: [ˈmaːrjo ˈkwɔːmo]; June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 52nd governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. A member of the Democratic Party, Cuomo previously served as the lieutenant governor of New York from 1979 to 1982 and the secretary of state of New York from 1975 to 1978. He was the father of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and broadcaster Chris Cuomo.

Cuomo was known for his liberal views and public speeches, particularly his keynote speech address at the 1984 Democratic National Convention in which he sharply criticized the policies of the Reagan administration, saying, "Mr. President, you ought to know that this nation is more a 'Tale of Two Cities' than it is just a shining 'city on a hill.'" He was widely considered a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president in both 1988 and 1992, but he ultimately declined to seek the nomination in both instances. His indecisiveness about entering the race led to his being dubbed "Hamlet on the Hudson".

Cuomo was defeated for a fourth term as governor by George Pataki in the Republican Revolution of 1994. He subsequently retired from politics and joined the New York City law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Cuomo was born in the Briarwood section of the New York City borough of Queens to a family of Italian origin. His grandfather Donato came to the US in 1896. Mario Cuomo's father, Andrea Cuomo, was born in New York City in 1901 but in 1904, aged two or three, was taken back to a mountain village outside Salerno, Campania, returning to the United States on his US passport more than two decades later. Andrea Cuomo was from Nocera Superiore, Campania, and his mother—Immacolata Giordano—was from Tramonti, Campania. The family ran Kessler's Grocery Store in South Jamaica, Queens. Mario Cuomo attended New York City P.S. 50 and St. John's Preparatory School.

Cuomo was a baseball player and while attending St. John's University in 1952, he signed as an outfielder with the Pittsburgh Pirates for a $2,000 bonus, which he used to help purchase his wife Matilda's engagement ring. Cuomo played for the Brunswick Pirates of the Class D Georgia–Florida League where his teammates included future major leaguer Fred Green; Cuomo attained a .244 batting average and played center field until he was struck in the back of the head by a pitch. Batting helmets were not yet required equipment, and Cuomo's injury was severe enough that he was hospitalized for six days.

After his recovery, Cuomo gave up baseball and returned to St. John's University, earning his bachelor's degree summa cum laude in 1953. Deciding on a legal career, Cuomo attended St. John's University School of Law and graduated tied for first in his class in 1956. Cuomo clerked for Judge Adrian P. Burke of the New York Court of Appeals. Despite having been a top student, the ethnic prejudice of the time led to his rejection by more than 50 law firms before he was hired by a small but established office in Brooklyn.

During his tenure at the law firm of Comer, Weisbrod, Froeb and Charles, Cuomo represented Fred Trump. Cuomo eventually became a partner at the firm, but stepped down in 1974 to become New York Secretary of State. In 1989, he settled a longstanding lawsuit against his former firm regarding $4 million in legal fees. In addition to practicing law, Cuomo worked as an adjunct professor at St. John's University School of Law.

Cuomo first became widely known in New York City in the late 1960s when he represented "The Corona Fighting 69", a group of 69 home-owners from the Queens neighborhood of Corona, who were threatened with displacement by the city's plan to build a new high school. He later represented another Queens residents group, the Kew Gardens–Forest Hills Committee on Urban Scale, who opposed Samuel J. LeFrak's housing proposal adjacent to Willow Lake in Queens. In 1972, Cuomo became known beyond New York City when Mayor John Lindsay appointed him to conduct an inquiry and mediate a dispute over low-income public housing slated for the upper-middle-class neighborhood of Forest Hills. Cuomo described his experience in that dispute in the book Forest Hills Diary, and the story was retold by sociologist Richard Sennett in The Fall of Public Man.