Mark Hamill - Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile

Biography

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Mark Richard Hamill (born September 25 1951) 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, and as the voice of The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, and as the young Colonel Blair in the Wing Commander series. After the Star Wars films, Hamill worked on Broadway, as a voice actor in animation and computer and video games, and as a comic book creator.

Hamill was born in Oakland, California. His parents are Bill and Sue Hamill. He has two brothers, Will and Patrick, and four sisters, Terry, Jan, Jeanie, and Kim. As a child, his father's military career meant numerous relocations, and he graduated from high school in Japan.

Mark's early career includes the 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, although the role was later performed by Grant Goodeve.

The original Star Wars trilogy

For his portrayal of Luke Skywalker, Hamill was twice honored with the Saturn Award for Best Actor (Film) (given by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films), in 1980 for Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and in 1983 for Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

George Lucas once asked Hamill to reprise the role of Luke Skywalker in a Star Wars sequel trilogy (Episodes VII, VIII and IX) as an Obi-Wan Kenobi type character who passes on the torch to the next generation of Jedi Knights and that it would be made around 2011. Lucas has recently dismissed it as nothing more than an off-hand comment.

Reprints of Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces (which influenced George Lucas as he was developing the Star Wars films) issued after the release of Star Wars in 1977, used the image of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker on the cover. [1]

Car accident

On 11 January 1977, on the way to shoot one of the final scenes needed for Star Wars, Hamill was in a car accident, which caused damage to his face. An A&E Network Biography special from 2002, entitled Mark Hamill: A Force to Be Reckoned With, claims that the damage was extensive, and Hamill had to have multiple plastic surgeries to reconstruct his face. The nature of the accident was recounted in the A&E special by members of Mark's family, including his older brother, William, and his cousin, Eric Johnson.

Other sources, however, claim that Mark stated he only broke his nose, needed one reconstructive surgery, and the severity of his physical injury was greatly exaggerated. In the second Star Wars film, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, he is seen with a new scar along his upper lip which may have been related to the accident. Luke's encounter with the Wampa on Hoth explains the scar in the movie.

Animation

Batman

Hamill was also the voice of the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and the other animated series that followed it. He received praise from both fans and critics alike for his portrayal of the comic book icon. As a huge comic book fan (and creator) himself, Hamill has stated it was both an honor and a thrill to play the character. His final appearance as the Joker to date was the two-part Justice League episode "Wild Cards". Hamill has since voiced the criminal Tony Zucco in The Batman, a more recent animated series which is unrelated to the various DC animated universe series in which Hamill's portrayal of the Joker was featured.

Other villainous roles

His success in the role has led to various villainous roles in other animated series, including the Gargoyle in the animated series of The Incredible Hulk, the Hobgoblin in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Maximus in Fantastic Four, Captain Stickybeard in Codename: Kids Next Door, and the deranged shock jock Dr. Jak in Phantom 2040. He even parodied his Joker role in the Tom and Jerry Kids episode "Droopy Man Returns." He also voiced Larry 3000 in Time Squad, Py-Ro in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Dr. Julius Pendecker in The Tick, and recorded voice tracks for Zim on Nickelodeon's Invader Zim, but was ultimately turned down for the role; the part was later given to Richard Steven Horvitz (he didn't scream longest and loudest). Hamill also supplies the voice of the villain Undergrowth in the Danny Phantom episode "Urban Jungle." More recently, he provides the voice of the shadowed Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender. He voices the Skeleton King on Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!.

Anime

Two recent notable performances have included Colonel Muska in the English language version of Castle in the Sky and the Mayor of Pejite in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, both directed by Hayao Miyazaki and distributed by Disney. Hamill provided the voice of Commander Taylor in Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, the sequel to the 1980s adapted anime series Robotech. He also voiced Christopher "Maverick" Blair in the animated series Wing Commander Academy.

Hamill provides the voice of Jameson Burkright in the mini-series comedy The Wrong Coast, and Yamma in the joint Cartoon Network, Production I.G. He provides the voice in anime series IGPX Immortal Grand Prix.

Other work

In live-action television, Hamill had recurring roles in General Hospital and The Texas Wheelers (both pre-Star Wars), and, foreshadowing his later famous role, appeared as The Trickster in the live-action television series of The Flash, a role he would later reprise in the animated series Justice League Unlimited. He has also made cameo appearances in MADtv and The Simpsons among others. He also had a guest spot on The Muppet Show as both himself and his "Cousin" Luke Skywalker, along with C-3PO, Chewbacca and R2-D2. He is also a recurring voice actor on Seth Green's Robot Chicken, and as of August 2006, on Adult Swim's Metalocalypse.

Hamill did the voice of a villain in the children's cartoon "Danny Phantom".

Hamill played the bad guy in the Swedish action movie Hamilton in 1998. Some of his other film credits include Corvette Summer, The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, The Big Red One, Slipstream, The Guyver, and the 1995 remake of Village of the Damned. He also narrated the four-part documentary on the influence of science fiction in present society, The Sci-Fi Files. In 2001, Hamill starred in the feature-film Thank You, Good Night as a pragmatic father along side Christian Campbell, J.P. Pitoc, and Sally Kirkland. Hamill also voiced the role of Emperor Griffon in the PS2 RPG Dark Cloud 2.

In 1986, he appeared in one episode of the TV series Amazing Stories (TV series) (Gather Ye Acorns) as Jonathan, who is advised by "Mother Nature's only son" to not discard his childhood belongings, which causes him trouble during his adult life. As he grows older, he is able to auction off his belongings and becomes rich as a result.

seaQuest DSV

He played the recurring character, Tobias LeConte, on seaQuest DSV, where his character (or rather the image of him) was responsible for the seaQuest's abduction from Earth, and by extension, the apparent destruction of the ship.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

He appeared as Cock-Knocker in the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, during which he used his "Joker Voice." He also parodied both himself and Luke Skywalker in a "bluntsaber" duel with Jay and Silent Bob in which he said "Don't fuck with a Jedi Master, son." When his large, fake right hand prop is cut off in the film's duel, he sighs, looks at the camera and says "Not again."

This is actually the first time both Hamill and his Star Wars co-star Carrie Fisher have appeared in a film together since Star Wars. However, neither of the stars knew this fact until the film's premiere.

Comic Book: The Movie

He also directed and starred in the 2004 direct-to-DVD Comic Book: The Movie. A comic book fan who attended sci-fi and comic conventions as an ordinary fan before he became famous, Hamill has said his character was based on an exaggerated version of himself. He and his crew shot the mockumentary movie primarily during the 2002 San Diego Comic-Con, and enlisted even Stan Lee, Kevin Smith, and Hugh Hefner in small roles. The movie won an award for Best Live-Action DVD Premiere Movie at the 2005 DVD Exclusive Awards.

Wing Commander

When the Wing Commander series of computer games started using full motion video cut scenes, Hamill was cast as the series protagonist, Colonel Christopher Blair, a role he played in Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (1994), Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (1995), and Wing Commander: Prophecy (1997). (In the 1999 Wing Commander film, set earlier in the series, the character was played by Freddie Prinze, Jr.)

Other computer game roles

Other notable computer-game roles (voice only) include Lieutenant Mosely in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, Assistant Director Wilson in Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix, several characters in the LucasArts game Full Throttle (including the game's main villain, Adrian Ripburger), and Wolverine in X2: Wolverine's Revenge, the tie-in game to the movie X2: X-Men United. Hamill also provided the voice for two of the primary characters of Starsiege, one of them a young warrior leading a rebellion against an empire. (The other being his brother.)

While some suspected that he reprised his role as Luke Skywalker for LucasArts "Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast" and its sequel, "Jedi Academy", the character is in fact voiced by Bob Bergen.

He narrated a documentary on the United States' 1st Infantry Division. Footage from the documentary was used in the video game Call of Duty 2: Big Red One.

Mark Hamill's latest voice-over role is for the PlayStation 2 game, Yakuza, where he voices the role of Goro Majima, a crazed and ruthless lieutenant of a Yakuza family.

As a writer

Mark Hamill is also the co-writer of The Black Pearl, a comic book mini-series published by Dark Horse Comics. Hamill appeared on an episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun, and acted as Luke Skywalker during one of the scenes. He also wrote an introduction to the Trade Paperback Batman: Riddler Two-Face which reprints various stories of the title villains to tie in with Batman Forever.

References

External links

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