Mark Hamill Biography

Mark Hamill (born 25 September 1951 in Oakland, California) is an American actor and voice actor. Hamill is best known for his portrayal of farmboy-turned-Jedi knight Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars films. After the Star Wars films, Hamill had a successful career on Broadway, as a voice actor in animation and computer and video games, and as a comic book creator.

His feature debut as Luke Skywalker in George Lucas' blockbuster "Star Wars" (1977), thrust blue-eyed, fair-haired, boyish leading man Mark Hamill into the international spotlight, but he was a familiar presence from his frequent TV appearances dating from 1970.
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After a much-traveled childhood (his father was a US Naval captain) spent in California, Virginia, New York and Japan, he made his first appearance on the small screen in a 1970 episode of "The Bill Cosby Show" (NBC). Next came a nine-month stint as the troubled teenaged nephew of heroine Nurse Jessie Brewer on the ABC daytime drama "General Hospital", followed by a regular role as the second eldest son on the sitcom "The Texas Wheelers" (ABC, 1974-75). In addition to numerous series guest spots and a recurring role during the early seasons of "One Day at a Time" (CBS), Hamill acted in high-profile TV movies like "Eric" and "Sarah T.--Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic" (both NBC 1975), as well as playing eldest son David Bradford in the 1977 pilot episode of ABC's "Eight is Enough". Lucas' film, however, moved him off the small screen for nearly 15 years.

The three "Star Wars" movies (including "The Empire Strikes Back" 1980 and "Return of the Jedi" 1983) solidified Hamill in the public's mind as Luke Skywalker, and none of the features he did during the six years spanning the trilogy did anything to dispel his appealing boy-next-door image. The best one was Sam Fuller's richly evoked war drama "The Big Red One" (1980), in which he played one of four callow recruits in the charge of veteran sergeant Lee Marvin. Lighter fare to which he lent his clean-cut good looks included the teen comedy "Corvette Summer" (1978) and Lindsay Anderson's witty, unsparing expose of British manners, "Britannia Hospital" (1982). Hamill spent most of the 1980s on stage, making his Broadway debut as John Merrick in "The Elephant Man" in 1981. He would return to the Great White Way several times, first as Mozart in "Amadeus" (in which he also toured) and later in the short-lived biographical musical "Harrigan 'n' Hart" and the comedy "The Nerd". Hamill ended his self-imposed exile from the movies with a performance as a futuristic bounty hunter in "Slipstream" (1989).

"Star Wars" was both a blessing and a curse for the actor, but the points with which Lucas rewarded him (and his fellow cast members) surely went a long way toward assuaging any frustration he may feel at being typecast in sci-fi and action adventures, thrillers and fantasies. Though Hamill's first credit as a voice actor came in Ralph Bakshi's "Wizards" (1977), the 90s have seen him blossom as the talent behind many animated characters, particularly the gleefully unhinged Joker of both Fox's animated TV series "The Adventures of Batman and Robin" (1992) and its spin-off feature "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" (1993). He has played live-action, scenery-chewing villains like The Trickster in two episodes of "The Flash" (CBS) and Mike Hawkins, the nemesis of the Swedish super-agent "Hamilton" (1998). Branching out into interactive videos, Hamill drew from Luke Skywalker to create the more grown-up figure of Christopher Blair, the leading character of several, best-selling "Wing Commander" CD-ROMs in the mid-90s. He also portrayed the time-traveling friend of Richard Grieco in the Showtime movie "When Time Expires" (1997) and co-produced and starred in the straight-to-video release "Watchers Reborn" (1998).

MARK HAMILL PICTURES

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MARK HAMILL BIOGRAPHY