10 Things You Don't Know About Mark Hamill
Mark Hamill is an absolute class act and one of the nicest celebrities to ever grace the silver screen. He has shown to be extremely grateful to Star Wars fans, never missing an opportunity to surprise them and even fellow celebrity fans. When someone mentions him, though, more often than not, the first thought is Luke Skywalker. Whilst this used to be a hindrance to him in earlier years, as he found it difficult to escape the shadow cast by this character, he has since embraced it, even revisiting the character in the sequel trilogy. Today, though, we are going to look at 10 things you don't know about him.
1. Prolific Voice Actor
As mentioned above, Hamill found it difficult to escape the typecasting which came along with playing one of the most famous characters of all time. However, he shifted his focus and started lending his voice to a ton of animated features. Thanks to the Arkham game series, a new generation of fans got to see him voice The Joker, to heaps of praise, but most don't realize he has actually voiced the character since the early 90's.
Starting with Batman: The Animated Series, Hamill would go on to voice The Joker throughout every season and even revisit the character throughout his life. Despite never playing him in physical form, fans still consider him to be one of, if not the, best Jokers.
Did you know, though, that he has also voiced numerous animated characters throughout the years as well? Below is a list of some of the more prominent ones:
Hobgoblin - 1990's Spider-Man animated TV series
Solomon Grundy and The Trickster - Justice League and Justice League Unlimited
Ozai - Avatar: The Last Airbender
Snakebite Scruggs - Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island
He has also shown up as a version of himself on The Simpsons, as well as lent his voice to animated versions of Luke Skywalker in both Family Guy and Robot Chicken.
2. Prolific Writer
As well as lending his voice to the numerous roles above, Hamill is also a very celebrated writer. He is the co-writer of the Dark Horse Comics series The Black Pearl, a five-part miniseries focusing on an everyday man who becomes a costumed vigilante by complete accident and media pressure.
Interestingly, he also provides the introduction to the Batman comic book collection Batman: Featuring Two-Face and The Riddler, which was comprised of stories featuring each character as the main villain of the story. It was released to tie in with Batman Forever.
On top of the above, he has also written stories for The Simpsons comics.
3. A Famous Friend's Suggestion
So we all know Mark Hamill starred in the original Star Wars trilogy as Luke Skywalker, but did you know some of the details as to how it came about?
Turns out Hamill was good friends with actor Robert Englund (whom most of you will know as the infamous Freddy Krueger from the A Nightmare On Elm Street franchise) and when Englund was unsuccessful in auditioning for the role of Han Solo, he was one of many friends who suggested Mark go and try out for the role of Luke, to obvious success. Over time, this story has been blown a bit out of proportion, with people reporting Hamill was living on Englund's couch. Hamill has since confirmed, via his Twitter that these details were not true, but did confirm Robert was one of a few friends to suggest it to him.
4. Stuntman?
Hamill has never exactly been known as an "action man" in his career. However, it may surprise you to know he actually performed the vast majority of his own stunts throughout the filming of the original trilogy. There were actually only two times in which he didn't, during Return of the Jedi, where they were performed by an actual stuntman.
It may not seem like much, but considering he did have to jump about a lot and fall from that platform in Empire (shown above) it is an impressive feat.
5. How I Met My Wife
Back in the 1970s, Hamill appeared on the TV show General Hospital and dated his co-star Anne Wyndham. Their relationship wouldn't last, however, something he himself has attributed to them both being actors, leading to them sometimes competing with each other.
Not long after they separated, Hamill was attending a dentist appointment when he met Marilou York, who worked at the practice as a dental hygienist. They soon began dating, went on to get marred, and have been together ever since. They have three kids together.
6. He Had A Fairly Serious Car Accident
Back in 1977, Hamill was involved in a car accident which resulted in him fracturing his nose and left cheekbone. Cartilage had to be taken from his ear to help rebuild his nose. This happened in the January prior to A New Hope being released in the May, so it wasn't big news as he was still relatively unknown until the movie came out, and it didn't affect filming.
Fans, however, have speculated that the opening scene from The Empire Strikes Back (in which Luke gets mauled by a big Wampa) was filmed intentionally to explain Hamill's altered appearance. Though George Lucas himself has debunked this theory, he did state it helped.
7. Trained Swordsman
So I think it's safe to say there are parts of the original trilogy that haven't aged well. The lightsaber scenes were mindblowing for their time, but the battles have somewhat lost their original charm thanks to the type of duels we saw in the prequel trilogy.
Having said that, in order to ensure he nailed what Lucas was looking for, Hamill trained with former Olympic fencer Bob Anderson. Anderson also acted as a stunt double for Darth Vader in some of the notable duels between Vader and Luke.
8. He has played a killer on Criminal Minds
Back in 2013, Hamill guest starred in two episodes of the hit show Criminal Minds. He played the killer John Curtis A.K.A. "The Replicator." Apparently, his daughter was a huge fan of the show and was over the moon when she found out he was going to be guest starring in the show.
9. He Went To School In Japan
When Hamill was growing up, his father was a US Navy Captain, which meant they moved around the world a lot. At 16, his family was stationed in Japan, so Hamill attended Nile C. Kinnick High School in Yokosuka, which is now a private school found in the Yokosuka Naval Base. During his time there, he was heavily involved in the drama club and even served as school council president before graduating in 1969. After this, he enrolled in Los Angeles City College to study drama further.
10. His Favorite Comedy Duo
Hamill has mentioned, on numerous occasions, that he has a profound fondness for the comedy duo Laurel & Hardy. For our younger readers, they were a duo who starred in a lot of comedies involving their own escapades back in the 1930's, and he speaks very fondly about his memories watching them growing up. In 2016, he even called into The Ross Owen Show on Black Sky Radio to talk about them, and this lasted over an hour. He's even joked once, "if you don't like Laurel and Hardy, you are no friend of mine."
Well, there you have it. How many of these things did you know?
Until next time!