"I can't tell you how much we laughed on the set to have Alec Guinness in a scene with a big, furry dog that's flying a space ship." -- Mark Hamill
Mark Richard Hamill (born September 25, 1951) is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer. Hamill is best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy. He is also well known for voice acting characters such as the Joker in the DC Animated Universe, (primarily in The Animated Series), Fire Lord Ozai in The Last Airbender, the Hobgoblin in The Animated Series, and Chanukah Zombie on Futurama.
"Acting in 'Star Wars' I felt like a raisin in a giant fruit salad, and I didn't even know who the cantaloupes were.""I have a sneaking suspicion that if there were a way to make movies without actors, George Lucas would do it.""I never saw myself so much as an actor. I wanted to be a cartoonist like Charles M. Schulz and create my own world and be able to have a studio at home and not commute and be able to be with my family.""You know how there are some stars out there who know how to market themselves? I don't have that."
Hamill was born in Concord, California and raised in Oakland, California, the son of Virginia Suzanne (née Johnson) and William Thomas Hamill, who was a captain in the U.S. Navy. He was one of seven children: two brothers, Will and Patrick, and four sisters, Terry, Jan, Jeanie, and Kim. As a child, his father's career meant numerous relocations, and he attended different schools throughout his childhood. In his elementary years he went to Poe Middle School, then for 10th grade, he attended Annandale High School located in Annandale, Virginia, but eventually ended up graduating from Nile C. Kinnick High School located in Yokosuka, Japan. He majored in drama at Los Angeles City College.
Hamill's early career included voicing the character Corey Anders on the Saturday morning cartoon Jeannie by Hanna-Barbera Productions. He also portrayed the oldest son David on the pilot episode of Eight Is Enough, though the role was later performed by Grant Goodeve. He acted in TV series such as The Texas Wheelers, General Hospital, The Partridge Family, and One Day At A Time. One of his earliest movies was the made-for-TV film The City.
In 1977, Hamill starred as Luke Skywalker in George Lucas' epic space saga Star Wars. The film was an enormous and unexpected success and became revolutionary for the film industry. Hamill also appeared in The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) and later starred in the successful Star Wars sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).
For his portrayal of Luke Skywalker, Hamill was twice honored with the Saturn Award for Best Actor (given by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films), for his performance in both sequels.
George Lucas was rumored to have asked Hamill to reprise the role of Luke Skywalker in a Star Wars sequel trilogy as an Obi-Wan Kenobi-type character who passes the torch to the next generation of Jedi Knights. Lucas later dismissed it as nothing more than an off-hand comment.
Reprints of Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces (which influenced Lucas as he was developing the films) issued after the release of Star Wars in 1977 used the image of Hamill as Luke Skywalker on the cover.
The actor reprised his role as Luke Skywalker for the radio versions of both Star Wars A New Hope and Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back, but did not participate in the Return of the Jedi radio drama due to budgetary concerns.
Car accident
On January 11, 1977, one day before he was set to shoot one of the final scenes needed for Star Wars, Hamill was in a car accident in which he fractured his nose and left cheekbone. According to Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz, Hamill was in surgery from 9 AM until 4 PM. As a result of the accident, a double was used for the landspeeder pickup shots.
After the success of Star Wars, Hamill found that audiences identified him very closely with the role of Luke Skywalker. He attempted to avoid typecasting by appearing in Corvette Summer and the better-known World War II film The Big Red One. As the 1980s wore on, Hamill did little film work outside of Star Wars. Instead, he acted on Broadway, starring in Amadeus, The Elephant Man (for which he received a Drama Desk Award nomination), and other stage plays, for which he received positive reviews.
Hamill played the villainous Hawkins in the Swedish action movie Hamilton in 1998. Some of his other film credits include The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, Britannia Hospital, Slipstream, The Guyver, and the 1995 remake of Village of the Damned. In 1990, he played a psychotic escaped mental patient who terrorizes Michael Dudikoff and his wife in Midnight Ride. He also narrated The Sci-Fi Files, a four-part documentary about the influence of science fiction upon present society. In 2001, Hamill starred in the feature film Thank You, Good Night alongside Christian Campbell, J.P. Pitoc, and Sally Kirkland.
Jeannie (1973) (voice) as Corey Anders
Petrocelli 2 Episodes: The Gamblers (1975) - The Outsiders (1975)
Wizards (1977) (voice) Sean
A New Hope (1977) as Luke Skywalker
Corvette Summer (1978)
The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)
Sam Fuller and the Big Red One (1979) (documentary)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980) as Luke Skywalker
The Big Red One (1980)
The Muppet Show Himself/Luke Skywalker (1980)
The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1981)
Britannia Hospital (1982)
Return of the Jedi (1983) as Luke Skywalker
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) (voice in 2005 English dub) Mayor of Pejite
Castle in the Sky (1986) (voice in 1998 English dub) Muska
Slipstream (1989)
Fall of the Eagles (1989)
Midnight Ride (1990)
The Guyver (1991)
Black Magic Woman (1991)
Sleepwalkers (1992) as Lt. Jennings (uncredited)
The Animated Series (1992) (voice) as The Joker
Time Runner (1993)
Mask of the Phantasm (1993) (voice) as The Joker
The Animated Series (1994) (voice) as Hobgoblin
Silk Degrees (1994)
The Raffle (1994)
Earth Angel (1991)
Full Throttle (1995)
Village of the Damned (1995)
Mina and the Count (1995) (voice) as The Count
Space Cases (1996)
Space Ghost Coast to Coast (1997) (himself)
Laserhawk (1997)
The New Batman Adventures (1997) (voice) as The Joker
Hamilton (1998)
Watchers Reborn (1998)
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) (voice) (direct-to-video) Snakebite Scruggs
Just Shoot Me! Episode: "The List" (1998) (Himself)
Gen¹³ (1999) (voice) (direct-to-video) Matthew "Threshold" Callahan
Wing Commander (1999) (voice)
Walking Across Egypt (1999)
The New Woody Woodpecker Show (1999) (voice) as Buzz Buzzard
Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists (2000) (voice)
Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders (2000) (voice) (direct-to-video)
King of Dreams (2000) (voice) (direct-to-video)
Son of the Beach (2000) (Cult Leader)
Return of the Joker (2000) (voice) (direct-to-video) as The Joker
Thank You, Good Night (2001)
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) as Cocknocker
