5 little-known facts about Star Wars actor Mark Hamill

Probably no actor is more associated with the Star Wars franchise than Mark Hamill. His performance as Luke Skywalker in 1977’s A New Hope helped to propel the film into the biggest blockbuster film in history and one that changed the film industry for the better.

Over the years, he’s been one of the most personable actors in Hollywood, regularly interacting with his fans. But there’s more to Mark Hamill than just Star Wars.

Below are five facts about the actor.

1. A happy marriage to a non-actor

Though Hamill’s first serious relationship was with actress Anne Wyndham, who was cast as his sister on General Hospital, Hamill has stated that the challenges of dating another actor were more difficult than he was willing to continue to face.

For that reason, Hamill married a non-actor and partly attributes their long and happy marriage to not being in competition because they’re not both actors. Hamill has been married to dental hygienist Marilou York since 1978, and the two met at a dentist’s office. They have three children, who have all had cameo parts in Star Wars films.

2. A prolific voice acting career

Though Hamill is most known for performances as Luke Skywalker, he’s also a prolific voice actor, most notably as the voice of The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. He’s gone on to perform the Clown Prince of Crime in other Batman animated stories as well, such as The Killing Joke and the Arkham line of Batman video games.

He’s lent his voice to a variety of other characters throughout the years, such as The Hobgoblin in the 1990s Spider-Man animated series, and most recently Chucky in the Child’s Play reboot and Skeletor in Netflix’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Hamill even provided a haunting performance of the Sith Lord Darth Bane in an episode of The Clone Wars.

3. Hamill the comic book writer

A large part of Hamill’s career, as we saw above, has been providing vocal performances for animated adaptations of comic book characters, but that hasn’t been his only experiences with comic books. Hamill was actually the co-writer (with Eric Johnson) of the 5-issue comic book series The Black Pearl.

The series was published by Dark Horse Comics in 1996 and tells the story of a stalkerish man who accidentally becomes a masked vigilante hero. The series deals with the tabloidization of news and the pressures to create sensational headlines. Hamill has wanted to adapt the series into a film with him as director for years.

4. Initial concerns about The Last Jedi

Hamill initially expressed disappointment in how the character of Luke Skywalker was handled in The Last Jedi. The film was controversial among the most die-hard of Star Wars fans and revealed a disillusioned Luke having exiled himself from the galaxy and shut himself off from the Force after what he believed to be his greatest failure.

The film ended with Luke coming to the rescue, albeit from a distance through a Force projection, before dying and becoming one with the Force. Hamill later expressed regret over voicing his concerns in public. “Creative differences are a common element of any project but usually remain private,” Hamill tweeted. “All I wanted was to make [a] good movie. I got more than that.”

5. Hamill’s name goes viral

Hamill has a large following on Twitter and interacts with his fans often on the platform. His popularity is unquestioned, but a recent Tweet by the actor demonstrated how far his reach goes. A fan named Lauren (@LozzaBean12 on Twitter) posted the following tweet on Sept. 5, 2021.

Hamill took up the challenge and quote-tweeted out his own name the same day.

https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/1434606369332736014?s=20

The tweet has over 600,000 likes, proving that Hamill is one of the most popular actors in the world.

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