Mark Hamill

The son of Virginia Suzanne and William Thomas Hamill, who was a captain in the U.S. Navy. He was one of seven children: two brothers, Will and Patrick, and four sisters, Terry, Jan, Jeanie, and Kim. As a child, his father's career meant numerous relocations, and he attended different schools throughout his childhood. In his elementary years he went to Poe Middle School, then for 10th grade, he attended Annandale High School located in Annandale, Virginia, but eventually ended up graduating from Nile C. Kinnick High School located in Yokosuka, Japan. He majored in drama at Los Angeles City College.

Hamill's early career included voicing the character Corey Anders on the Saturday morning cartoon Jeannie by Hanna-Barbera Productions. He also portrayed the oldest son David on the pilot episode of Eight Is Enough, though the role was later performed by Grant Goodeve. He acted in TV series such as The Texas Wheelers, General Hospital, and One Day At A Time. One of his earliest movies was the made-for-TV film The City. In 1977, Hamill starred as Luke Skywalker in George Lucas' epic space saga Star Wars. After the success of Star Wars, Hamill found that audiences identified him very closely with the role of Luke Skywalker. He attempted to avoid typecasting by appearing in Corvette Summer and the better-known World War II film The Big Red One. 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.

Mark Hamill did voice acting work in the Ralph Bakshi film Wizards, where he played "Sean, leader of the Knights of Stardust". The film was released on the same weekend as Star Wars, and thus may have been somewhat overshadowed.

He voiced Colonel Muska in the 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. Hamill provided the voice of Commander Taylor in Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, the sequel to the 1980s adapted anime series Robotech. He was also in Afro Samurai Resurrection.

Hamill provides the voice of Jameson Burkright in the mini-series comedy The Wrong Coast, and Yamma in the joint Cartoon Network/Production I.G anime series IGPX Immortal Grand Prix. In early 2010, Mark Hamill voiced as Dante's father in the anime film version of Dante's Inferno.

Mark Hamill is the co-writer of The Black Pearl, a comic book miniseries published by Dark Horse Comics. He wrote an introduction to the Trade Paperback Batman: Riddler Two-Face which reprints various stories involving The Riddler and Two-Face to tie in with Batman Forever. He has also written several stories for Simpsons Comics, including "Catastrophe in Substitute Springfields!" which parodies DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths and also references several other classic comics.

In 1978, he married dental hygienist Marilou York. They have three children together: Nathan, Griffin and Chelsea. His son Nathan was born during filming of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and had a cameo role in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) playing one of the Royal Guards of Naboo.