Mark Richard Hamill (born September 25, 1951) is an American actor, voice actor, and writer. Hamill is best known for playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films, which won him the Saturn Award for Best Actor three times. He is also known for his voice acting in animation and video games, especially for his portrayal of the Joker, beginning with Batman: The Animated Series in 1992.
Career
Hamill has gained a reputation as a prolific voice actor. He first did voice acting work in the early 1970s voicing the character Corey Anders on the Saturday morning cartoon Jeannie by Hanna-Barbera Productions. He later played Sean in the Ralph Bakshi film Wizards, which was released just three months before Star Wars in 1977.
Though the voice role he is most known for is Batman's archenemy the Joker, his success as the Joker has led him to portray a wide variety of characters in television, film, anime, and video games (mostly similar super-villains).
Hamill was the voice of The Hobgoblin in the 1990s Spider-Man animated series, and his other Marvel superhero genre roles include the Gargoyle in the animated series of The Incredible Hulk, Maximus in Fantastic Four, Klaw in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and multiple characters in Ultimate Spider-Man. Hamill voiced Solomon Grundy and Trickster in the DC animated universe series Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, the murderous gangster Tony Zucco in The Batman, an animated series unrelated to the various DC animated universe series. He voiced Spectre in an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Non-comic related television roles include the deranged shock jock anchorman Dr. Jak in Phantom 2040, Principal John Smith in Totally Spies! episode "Soul Collector", Christopher "Maverick" Blair in Wing Commander Academy, the classic Walter Lantz character Buzz Buzzard in The New Woody Woodpecker Show, the flamboyant robot Lawrance "Larry" 3000 in Time Squad, the pirate Captain Stickybeard in Codename: Kids Next Door, the ruler of the Fire Nation Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender, the evil Skeleton King in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, multiple roles in Metalocalypse and the groundskeeper Skips in Regular Show. He also voices acted as himself in two episodes of the Disney animated series Pepper Ann.
Aside from voice acting on television, Hamill has starred in multiple animated films. Some of these roles include The Captain of the Guard in Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists, the biblical figure Judah in Joseph: King of Dreams, the evil wolf Niju in Balto II: Wolf Quest and Chanukah Zombie in Futurama: Bender's Big Score. Hamill has done voice acting in English dubs of two Studio Ghibli films. He voiced Colonel Muska in the second 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.
His video game voice roles include Detective Mosely in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers and Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, Assistant Director Wilson in Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix, Adrian Ripburger in the LucasArts game Full Throttle, two installments of Crash Bandicoot series, Wolverine in X2: Wolverine's Revenge, which was the tie-in game to the film X2, Goro Majima in Yakuza, Malefor The Dark Master in The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, The Watcher in Darksiders, and Master Eraqus in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts III. The creator of Kingdom Hearts, Tetsuya Nomura, is a big fan of all of Hamill's work. There is also another character, Master Xehanort, who was originally voiced by Leonard Nimoy, the actor of Spock. Tetsuya Nomura stated that they wanted the two for the roles, as the two characters are rivals, referencing the rivalry between fans of Star Wars and fans of Star Trek (though Nimoy was replaced by Rutger Hauer for Kingdom Hearts III following his death). He also narrated Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, the title being a reference to the 1980 war film he starred in.
Hamill voiced the character of Todd Wainio in World War Z, a critically acclaimed audiobook based on Max Brooks' novel of the same name. He also provided the entire cast of voices for a 1983 audiobook version of Pinocchio with unique characteristics for each. Hamill also reads life into the characters of the popular juvenile fiction book series, The Spiderwick Chronicles Volumes I–III, by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi.
Filmography
Animation Dubbing
Animated Series
- The Legend of Calamity Jane (1997-1998) - Additional Voices
- Totally Spies! (2001-2013) - Principal John Smith (ep. 23)
- The Garfield Show (2009-2016) - Master Control
Anime Dubbing
Anime
- IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix (2005-2006) - Yamma
Anime Films
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) - Mayor of Pejite (Buena Vista Dub)
- Castle in the Sky (1986) - Muska (Buena Vista Dub)
- Afro Samurai: Resurrection (2009) - Bin, Oden Shop Master
Video Game Dubbing
- Dark Cloud 2 (2002) - Emperor Griffon
- Yakuza (2005) - Goro Majima
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (2010) - Master Eraqus
- Kingdom Hearts III (2019) - Master Eraqus
External Links
- Mark Hamill at the Internet Movie Database
- Mark Hamill at the Anime News Network's encyclopedia
