Mark Hamill
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Mark Richard Hamill (born September 25, 1951) is an American actor, comedian and voice actor. Hamill is best known for his portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy (1977–1983) and as the voice of The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series.
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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 as an Obi-Wan Kenobi type character who passes 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 Lucas as he was developing the Star Wars films) issued after the release of Star Wars in 1977, used the image of Hamill as Luke Skywalker on the cover.
Car accident
On January 11, 1977, a day before he was set to shoot one of the final scenes needed for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Hamill was in a car accident in which he fractured his nose and left cheekbone. According to Star Wars: A New Hope producer Gary Kurtz, Hamill was in surgery from 9:00 AM until 4 PM. As a result of the accident, a double was used for the landspeeder pickup shots. In the second Star Wars film, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, he is seen with a new scar along his upper lip; this was explained in the film as being the result of his encounter with the wampa on the fifth planet of the Hoth system.
In an A&E Network Biography special from 2002, entitled Mark Hamill: A Force to Be Reckoned With, members of Hamill's family, including his older brother, William, and his cousin, Eric Johnson, recounted the accident.
Animation
Hamill was the voice of the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series (which debuted in 1992), as well as most of the other spin-off series, video games and films. Hamill had initially voiced a guest role as evil businessman Ferris Boyle in the episode "Heart of Ice", and was delighted when offered the role of the Joker, one of his favorite characters and many fans of the series regard him as being the definitive voice actor for the character. He appeared as the Joker in fifteen episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, the film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, five episodes of The New Batman Adventures, The Batman/Superman Movie, four episodes of Justice League, three episodes of Superman: The Animated Series, and the film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.[7] He had many appearances as the Joker to date, like the two-part Justice League episode "Wild Cards". His last appearance, in terms of DCAU chronological order, was in the direct-to-DVD film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. "Wild Cards" was the last aired episode in which he appears as the Joker.
The short-lived WB live action series, Birds of Prey, based on the comic book of the same title, featured a flashback sequence in which the Joker, shoots Barbara Gordan (Batgirl) and paralyzes her. This sequence featured Mark Hamill voicing the Joker, dubbed over an actor whose facial structure more resembled the character. The actor's face was shot in the background so as to be slightly blurred.
Hamill also provided voices for villains Solomon Grundy and the Trickster in the DC Animated Universe series Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. Hamill also played the Trickster in the Flash TV series. 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.
His success as Joker has led to other villain 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," and in the Animaniacs episode "The Cranial Crusader", as Johnny Bad-Note. He briefly provided the voice for Dr. Knuckles Turnpike in the animated F.I.S.T. spin-off series DoubleF.I.S.T.E.D. He voiced Py-Ro in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Dr. Julius Pendecker in The Tick, and Niju the Evil Wolf in Balto II: Wolf Quest.
He also guest starred in two episodes of The Flash as The Trickster.
Hamill does the voice of the villain Undergrowth in the Danny Phantom episode "Urban Jungle." More recently, he provides the voice of Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Skeleton King on Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go. He also guest starred as The Moth in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode: Night Light. He even played the latter character in the Mina and the Count shorts.
And while not a villain in the movie Bender's Big Score, Mark played the voice of the Chanukah Zombie. He currently plays Senator Stampingston and Mr. Selatcia in Metalocalypse.
In the Hanna-Barbera Productions cartoon SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, Hamill voiced Jonny K., the Red Lynx, and Burke, among others.
It is rumored that Hamill also auditioned for a part on TV show Invader Zim, created by Jhonen Vasquez, but was turned down
Comic Book: The Movie
Hamill 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 before he became famous, Hamill claimed that his character was based on an exaggerated version of himself. He and his crew shot most of the "mockumentary" film 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.
Computer and video 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 X-Men 2: Wolverine's Revenge, the tie-in game to the movie X-Men 2. 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.
He voiced the Joker in a few Batman games, notably Batman Vengeance and the Sega CD version of The Adventures of Batman & Robin. While some have mistakenly suspected that he reprised his role as Luke Skywalker for LucasArts' Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and its sequel, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, the character is in fact voiced by Bob Bergen (also the voice of Porky Pig and a host of others). Hamill provided voices for The Scorpion King: Rise of the Akkadian. He also voiced the role of Emperor Griffon in the PlayStation 2 role-playing game Dark Cloud 2 as well as Colonel Kroitz in Grandia Xtreme.
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. He has appeared in two installments in the Crash Bandicoot series: in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex as Py-Ro the Fire Elemental, and in Crash: Mind over Mutant as the Znu and was on Space Ghost Coast To Coast as himself talking about Star Wars.
Mark Hamill's latest voiceover role is for the PlayStation 2 game, Yakuza, where he plays Goro Majima, a crazed and ruthless lieutenant of a Yakuza family. He is also the voice of Malefor the Dark Master in The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon.
Writing
Mark Hamill is also the co-writer of The Black Pearl, a comic book miniseries published by Dark Horse Comics. 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.