His father was a captain in the United States Navy; he grew up in California, Virginia, New York and Japan. He majored in drama at Los Angeles City College and made his acting debut on The Bill Cosby Show in 1970. He played a continuing role (Kent Murray) in TV's General Hospital and co-starred in the respected TV comedy series The Texas Wheelers. Real fame came with his film debut (he was voice only in Wizards) with the hero role of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi. He experienced a disfiguring car crash, but later played in Broadway, returning to film in 1989.
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977): $650,000

Father of Nathan Hamill (b. 25 June 1979), Griffin (b. 4 March 1983), Chelsea (b. 27 July 1988) In an ironic counterpoint to his problem of being typecast as a upright hero like Luke Skywalker in live-action roles, he has found that his successful career as an animation voice actor has typecast him as a player of flamboyant villains like the Joker in the animated The Adventures of Batman & Robin series. Attended Yokosuka High School on Yokosuka Naval Base. School now named Nile C. Kinnick High School Hamill met his wife, Mary Lou York, when she was his dental hygienist. He did all his own stunts in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi -- except two places: where Luke Skywalker jumps off the plank into the Sarlaac, turns, and flips back onto the plank and on the Death Star when Vader throws his saber at the supports of the catwalk. According to The Making of Return of the Jedi by John Philip Peecher (c. 1983), his stunt double, Colin Skeaping, performed both of these stunts. He accidentally hit Peter Stormare during a fight scene in Hamilton. He did all his own stunts in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, except in the scene in Cloud city where he is sucked out of a window. He was originally cast as David on Eight Is Enough, and asked to be released from his contract before Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope came out because he sensed the movie would be successful, and Hamill wanted to focus on his movie career. ABC refused to release him from his contract, thinking that having a successful movie star connected with the show would help "Eight is Enough" (1976). Hamill was then in a car crash in December 1976 and injured his face. This made him unavailable for shooting the TV series, and ABC was forced to recast the role of David, which then went to Grant Goodeve. Is the 4th of 7 children Auditioned for American Graffiti. Appeared in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which also starred Carrie Fisher. It was the first time the two had starred together since Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi. Neither of them knew that the other was involved in the project until shortly after filming had been completed. Claims his inspiration for the vocal interpretation as The Joker on the animated The Adventures of Batman & Robin came from a mixture of Hannibal Lecter and Jerry Lewis. Attended Annandale High School in Annandale, Virginia before his father was transfered. In 1995, he appeared in Village of the Damned for director John Carpenter. That same year, Carpenter released another movie: In the Mouth of Madness. A newspaper boy was played by Hayden Christensen, who went on to play his father (Anakin Skywalker) in the Star Wars prequels. He kept his Luke Skywalker boots, from the first "Star Wars" movie. When the movie was re-released to theaters in the late 1990s, his son asked if he could wear the boots to a showing. Hamill said no, telling him he didn't think the boy would "get out alive" if fans knew his boots were the originals. Though in the Star Wars trilogy he shoots a pistol and swings a light saber right-handed, he eats and writes left-handed. He can be seen eating left-handed in The Empire Strikes Back when in Yoda's home and writing left-handed on a guest appearance on the show Third Rock From the Sun. Ambidextrous. Director Stephen Weeks originally wanted him for the part of Sir Gawain in Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1984) but the producers refused and insisted on Miles O'Keefe. Mark and his Star Wars co-star Harrison Ford were both considered for the role of the bumbling wizard Schmendrick in the 1982 animated adaptation of The Last Unicorn. Played the infamous Flash villain, The Trickster aka James Jesse (a word play for old west bandit Jesse James, a popular stunt for Flash creator Gardner Fox and other series writers), in both the short lived live action CBS series "The Flash", in 1991 (two episodes), and in the "Justice League Unlimited" animated series in 2005, in the episode "Flash and Substance". Worked for free on Britannia Hospital Is one quarter Swedish. He campaigned for George McGovern during the 1972 presidential race. For the New Jedi Order novelization he reprized his role as Luke Skywalker playing his own voice in a commercial. He was a friend of Robert Englund, the actor best known for playing Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare On Elm Street films. Englund himself auditioned for the role of Luke Skywalker and, when he didn't get the part, he encouraged Mark to go and audition after him.