Mark Richard Hamill (; born September 25, 1951) is an American actor. He rose to fame as Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy (1977–1983), leading to further lead parts in films like Corvette Summer (1978) and Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One (1980).
Through the 1980s, Hamill distinguished himself from his role in Star Wars by pursuing a theatre career on Broadway, starring in productions of The Elephant Man (1980), Amadeus (1983), and The Nerd (1987). Starting in the 1990s, Hamill began to work primarily as a voice actor for animated film, television, and video games, with the Joker in multiple pieces of DC Comics media, starting with Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, being his most well-known voice role. For his role of the Joker, he was nominated for two Annie Awards and won a BAFTA Game Award. His other animated roles include the Hobgoblin in Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994–1998), Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005–2008), Mr. Salacia and Senator Stampingston in Metalocalypse (2006–2013, 2023), and Skips in Regular Show (2010–2017) and The Lost Tapes (2026–present).
Hamill returned to mainstream prominence when he reprised his Luke Skywalker role in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015–2019). He followed this with live-action roles in Brigsby Bear (2017), the Netflix miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher (2023), The Life of Chuck (2024), and The Long Walk (2025).
Early life Mark Richard Hamill was born on September 25, 1951, in Oakland, California. His father, William Thomas Hamill, was a U.S. Navy captain. He is one of seven children, with two brothers, Will and Patrick, and four sisters, Terry, Jan, Jeanie, and Kim. His father has English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh ancestry and his mother was of half Swedish and half English descent."Just The Best: Sienn's Mark Hamill Page: Interviews 1990" . Stars.handshake.de (May 1, 1997). Retrieved on July 24, 2013. Hamill has described his father as a staunch Roman Catholic, and "Nixon Republican". Hamill has stated that he had a troubled relationship with his father who could not understand his childhood obsession with movies and comic books, seeing them as frivolous things that he should outgrow.
His father's changes of station and attendant family moves led to the Hamill children switching schools often. During his elementary years, he attended Walsingham Academy in Williamsburg, Virginia, and Edgar Allan Poe Middle School in Annandale, Virginia. At age 11, he moved to the 5900 block of Castleton Drive in San Diego, California, where he attended Hale Junior High School. During his first year at James Madison High School in San Diego, his family moved back to Virginia, and Hamill attended Annandale High School. By his junior year, his father was stationed in Japan, where Hamill attended and was a member of the Drama Club at Nile C. Kinnick High School, from which he graduated in 1969. He later enrolled at Los Angeles City College, majoring in drama.
Career
Beginnings
Hamill's early career included a recurring role on the soap opera General Hospital, and a starring role on the short-lived sitcom The Texas Wheelers. He portrayed the oldest son, David, in the pilot episode of Eight Is Enough, though the role was later performed by Grant Goodeve. He also had guest appearances on The Bill Cosby Show, The Partridge Family, Room 222 and One Day at a Time.
Star Wars
1977–1983: Original trilogy Robert Englund was auditioning for a role in Apocalypse Now when he walked across the hall to where auditions were taking place for George Lucas's Star Wars. After watching the auditions for a while, he realized that Hamill, his friend, would be perfect for the role of Luke Skywalker. He suggested to Hamill that he audition for the role; as it turned out, Hamill's agent had already set up the audition that gave him the role. During his screen test, Hamill presumed that he was playing a sidekick to Harrison Ford's Han Solo and was unsure whether or not the film was supposed to be a comedy.
Released in May 1977, Star Wars was an enormous, unexpected success and had a huge effect on the film industry. Hamill went on to appear in the less-than-successful Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978, and later starred in the successful film sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. In January 1977 Hamill had been involved in a serious car accident, fracturing his nose and left cheekbone. The accident was the reason why Empire starts with his character's injury. False rumors spread that his face had required plastic surgery. For his part in both of the sequels, Hamill was honored with the Saturn Award for Best Actor, given by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. In 1980, he made a guest appearance on The Muppet Show, both as himself and as Luke Skywalker in the episode The Stars of Star Wars. The crossover episode also starred Anthony Daniels as C-3PO and R2-D2, who joined Luke on a search for Chewbacca.
Hamill reprised the role of Luke Skywalker for the radio dramatizations of both Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. For the Return of the Jedi radio drama, the role was played by a different actor.
Editions of Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces (which influenced Lucas as he was developing the films) issued after the release of Star Wars in 1977 used the image of Hamill as Luke Skywalker on the cover.
Hamill has appeared in several documentaries, including The Making of Star Wars and Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy. He also narrated the 1980 documentary, SP FX: The Empire Strikes Back and the 1983 documentary, From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga.
2014–2025: Return to the Star Wars franchise
Hamill returned to the Star Wars universe in 2014, when he voiced the ancient Sith Lord Darth Bane in the last episode of season 6 of the animated series The Clone Wars. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for his performance.
Following its acquisition of Lucasfilm, The Walt Disney Company released more Star Wars films, starting with The Force Awakens on December 18, 2015. Initially, both Disney and Hamill were coy about whether Hamill would be a cast member.Devin Leonard (March 7, 2013). "How Disney Bought Lucasfilm—and Its Plans for 'Star Wars'". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved May 26, 2013.Weiner, David (February 20, 2013). "Mark Hamill Muses on New 'Star Wars': 'Go Retro'" . Entertainment Tonight. Retrieved May 26, 2013. It was reported that Hamill had been assigned a nutritionist and personal trainer ahead of production. In September 2013, Hamill's friend Robert Englund confirmed that "they've got Mark in the gym because Mark's coming back as Luke Skywalker." In 2014, it was announced that Hamill would reprise his role in The Force Awakens. Despite having top billing, Hamill only appears briefly at the end of the film (with no dialogue) in a cliffhanger set-up for the sequel. The film received positive reviews, was the highest-grossing film of 2015, grossed $2.07 billion worldwide and became the third-highest-grossing film at the time of its release.
Hamill played Skywalker again in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, released on December 15, 2017. Hamill was initially critical of his own role in the film, stating that he and director Rian Johnson had "a fundamental difference" regarding Skywalker's characterization. Hamill later expressed regret for having made those statements, calling the film an "all-time great". He played Skywalker again in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the last instalment of the nine part Skywalker saga.
Hamill also had voice cameos as Dobbu Scay in The Last Jedi, Boolio in The Rise of Skywalker, and EV-9D9 in the fifth episode of The Mandalorian. He had similar cameos in The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and Solo: A Star Wars Story in undisclosed roles, for which he was credited as "William M. Patrick" and "Patrick Williams".
Hamill was digitally de-aged to reprise his role as Skywalker in the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian and the sixth chapter of the spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett. He also appeared in Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian. In 2021, Hamill praised the prequel trilogy for having "their own identity".
Hamill voiced the animator in the Star Wars webisode of How NOT to Draw and reprised his role in Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy.
Hamill attended several conventions as part of Star Wars Celebration as a guest.
In an interview in May 2025, Hamill said that he would not portray Luke Skywalker again saying, "I had my time. I'm appreciative of that, but I really think they should focus on the future and all the new characters." Despite this, it was announced in August 2025 that he would make a guest appearance in LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy: Pieces of the Past.
Other work
After the success of Star Wars, Hamill found that audiences identified him very closely with Luke Skywalker. He became a teen idol, appearing on the cover of teen magazines such as Tiger Beat. He attempted to avoid being typecast by appearing in the 1978 film Corvette Summer and the 1980 World War II film The Big Red One. He also appeared in The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1981) and Britannia Hospital (1982). Further distancing himself from his early blockbuster role, Hamill started acting on Broadway, starring in plays such as The Elephant Man (1979), Amadeus (1983), Harrigan 'N Hart (1985, for which he received a Drama Desk Award nomination), Room Service (1986) and The Nerd (1987–88).Rich, Frank (March 23, 1987), "Theater: Robert Joy in The Nerd ". The New York Times. Retrieved June 22, 2016. When Amadeus was adapted for film in 1984, Hamill auditioned to reprise his role as Mozart, but lost the part to Tom Hulce. A studio executive told the producers of the film, "I don't want Luke Skywalker in this film". The film director, Milos Forman told Hamill that, "No one is believing that the Luke Skywalker is the Mozart." Hamill also made television appearances—in a 1986 episode of Amazing Stories and a 1987 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
After a six-year hiatus from film, Hamill returned to the big screen in the 1989 science-fiction film Slipstream. He continued to star in films throughout the 1990s, including Midnight Ride and The Guyver in 1991, the 1995 remake of Village of the Damned, and the 1998 Swedish action film Hamilton. Hamill appeared in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) as the supervillain Cocknocker, a role that is a parody both of himself and of roles he played in the past.
His television work includes a guest appearance as the Trickster on two episodes of The Flash (1990), cameo appearances on MADtv as the estranged father of Ms. Swan, and an appearance on Saturday Night Live, in which he played himself being sold in a Star Wars-themed home shopping sale. He appeared in single episodes of 3rd Rock from the Sun (1997), and Just Shoot Me! (1998), in two episodes of seaQuest DSV (1995) as Tobias LeConte, and in the episode "Mind over Matter" of the series The Outer Limits (1995).
When the Wing Commander series of computer games started using full motion video cut scenes, Hamill was cast as the series protagonist, Colonel Christopher Blair, a role he played in Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom and Wing Commander: Prophecy. In the 1999 Wing Commander film, Blair was played by Freddie Prinze Jr., although Hamill had a voice cameo. Hamill appears in Squadron 42—the single-player campaign from the Star Citizen computer-game universe—as Lieutenant Commander Steve "Old Man" Colton."Cast" . Squadron 42. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
In 2003, Hamill starred in the two-hander play Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks as the acerbic dance instructor Michael Minetti. He played opposite Rue McClanahan for the season at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, and opposite Polly Bergen when the production moved to Broadway.