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Mark Hamill Full name: Mark Richard Hamill Birth date: September 25, 1951 Birth place: Oakland, California Occupation: Actor Education: Los Angeles City College (studied drama and theater) Parents: William Thomas Hamill

Virginia Suzanne Johnson Spouse(s): Marilou York (m. 1978) Children: Nathan Elias Hamill (b. 1979)

Griffin Hamill (b. 1983)

Chelsea Hamill (b. 1988)

Mark Richard Hamill[1] (born September 25, 1951)[1] is an American actor, who is best known as Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars franchise, The Trickster in both live-action series of The Flash, and for voicing The Joker in a plethora of television series and video games of the Batman series.[2] On Regular Show, he provided the voice of Skips, a regular character on the show. In addition, he also voiced other characters on the show.

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Early life

Mark Richard Hamill was born on September 25, 1951, in Oakland, California, the fourth child of William Thomas Hamill (b. 1927), a captain in the United States Navy, and Virginia Suzanne (née Johnson), (1927-1998), a homemaker.[3][4][5][6] Mark has six siblings: brothers William and Patrick and sisters Terry, Jan, Jeanie, and Kim.[7] Due to his father's status as a U.S. Navy Captain, he and his family moved often, living in California, Virginia, New York, and Japan.[8] Hamill attended elementary school at Walsingham Academy and went to middle school at Poe Middle School.[9] After graduating high school overseas at Yokohama High School in 1969, he and his family returned to the United States, where he started attending college at Los Angeles City College, studying drama and theater arts.[1][7]

Career

Early roles

Hamill made his acting debut on The Bill Cosby Show in 1970 and began acting on other television shows of the time period, such as The Partridge Family, One Day at a Time and Night Gallery.[10] He landed a recurring role as Kent Murray on the medical drama General Hospital. Around this time he also made his voice acting debut in the film Wizards. He co-starred on the short-lived series The Texas Wheelers in 1974.[11][12] He continued playing small roles before playing David Bradford in the pilot of Eight is Enough, which he had signed on to do shortly before being offered to appear on Star Wars; on January 11, 1977, after attempting to be let out of his contract on Eight is Enough to act in Star Wars, Hamill was involved in a car accident where he and his BMW fell off a thirty-foot cliff, fracturing his nose and left cheekbone, requiring facial reconstructive surgery and Eight is Enough to hire a new actor in his place. After three plastic surgery operations, his face was finally well-repaired and as Star Wars creator George Lucas still had not found someone to play Luke Skywalker, Hamill happily accepted the second offer.[3][10][11]

Star Wars, Theatre, and The Joker

Hamill won the role of Luke Skywalker by auditioning and doing a screen test.[13] Star Wars became a huge success, propelling Hamill and his co-stars into stardom.[1] Hamill also won two Saturn Awards for Best Actor in Film for episodes V and VI.[3]

After the original Star Wars trilogy ended, he focused on theatre, appearing in several plays such as The Elephant Man as John Merrick and Amadeus, portraying musical figure Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.[12][11] For his role as Tony Hart in Harrigan 'n Hart, he was nominated for a Drama Desk award in the category of "Best Actor in a Musical".[7] He also acted in such straight-to-video films as Corvette Summer, Time Runner, and Village of the Damned.[10]

His live-action roles declined, but Hamill thrived in the voice acting field, landing the part of The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and most of the following animated Batman projects.[1] For his voice works as The Joker he has been nominated for two Annie Awards (in 1994 and 2001) and for two Video Game Awards (in 2009 and 2011).[14] The video game Batman: Arkham City was supposed to be the final installment of the Batman series to have Hamill voice The Joker. He then reprised The Joker in the Arkham finale "Batman: Arkham Knight", The Killing Joke animated adaption of the critically acclaimed graphic novel of the same name and later Justice League Action.[2]

Aside from his fame as Luke Skywalker and The Joker, Hamill has guest-starred on V.I.P., Amazing Stories, Third Rock from the Sun, and SeaQuest DSV.[10] He played the villain in the Star Wars parody Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.[10] In 2015, Hamill once again played Luke Skywalker in The Force Awakens, and will play him once more in Episode VIII, scheduled to be released in 2017.

Shift to voice acting and other projects

Since the late 1990s, Hamill has primarily focused on voice acting. Best known in the voiceover field for voicing The Joker, he has also voice acted on Spider-Man as The Hobgoblin,[10] Johnny Bravo as numerous minor characters, Time Squad as Larry 3000, The Simpsons and Pepper Ann as himself, Robot Chicken and Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, among many other animated series.[2] Hamill has also provided his voice in video games, portraying Colonel Christopher Blair in Wing Commander III, Wing Commander IV, and Wing Commander: Prophecy.[7] Hamill's voice acting agency is Danis, Panaro & Nist.[15]

Hamill has also dabbled in writing, co-writing a five-part graphic novel, entitled The Black Pearl with Eric Johnson, with the first part being released on September 18, 1996.[7] He has also written stories for Simpsons Comics, notably "Catastrophe in Substitute Springfields!".[16] He directed, starred, and produced the movie Comic Book: The Movie.[7][10] He also wrote an introduction to Batman: Riddler Two-Face.[17]

Regular Show

Despite voicing Skips on the show, he doubted Regular Show's success originally: "When I read the first script for The Regular Show I thought it was too weird for young people, it's surreal. I didn't think it had a chance but now it's on its sixth season."[18] For his voice works as Skips he was nominated for an Annie Award in 2013.[14] When the show ended in 2017, Hamill stated he would miss his fellow cast members, who he thought were "fun people."[19]

Voice credits

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

Season Eight

Personal life

He resides in Malibu, California, with his wife Marilou York,[1] who was his dental hygienist prior to their marriage.[7][18][20] The couple married on December 17, 1978, in a private civil ceremony.[20][21][4] They live with their beloved dog.[18] Together Mark and Marilou have three children: Nathan Elias (born June 25, 1979),[1][4][7] an artist,[22] Griffin (born March 4, 1983),[1][7] a painter,[23] and Chelsea (born July 27, 1988).[1][7] In his free time Hamill enjoys reading comic books, collecting things such as toys, and playing water sports; he is also interested in puppets and magic.[21][24][8][12]