Mark Richard Hamill (born September 25, 1951) is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer. Hamill is best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy. He is also well known for voice acting characters such as Batman's archenemy The Joker in the DC Animated Universe, (mostly in Batman: The Animated Series) Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Hobgoblin in Spider-Man: The Animated Series and for his voice-over work as Chanukah Zombie on Futurama.

Hamill was born in Concord, California and raised in Oakland, California, the son of Virginia Suzanne (née Johnson) 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. The film was an enormous and unexpected success and became revolutionary for the film industry. Hamill also appeared in The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) and later starred in the successful Star Wars sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).

For his portrayal of Luke Skywalker, Hamill was twice honored with the Saturn Award for Best Actor (given by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films), for his performance in both sequels.

George Lucas was rumored to have asked Hamill to reprise the role of Luke Skywalker in a Star Wars sequel trilogy as an Obi-Wan Kenobi-type character who passes the torch to the next generation of Jedi Knights. Lucas later dismissed it as nothing more than an off-hand comment.

Reprints 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.

The actor reprised his role as Luke Skywalker for the radio versions of both Star Wars A New Hope and Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back, but did not participate in the Return of the Jedi radio drama due to budgetary concerns.[citation needed]

On January 11, 1977, one day before he was set to shoot one of the final scenes needed for Star Wars, Hamill was in a car accident in which he fractured his nose and left cheekbone. According to Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz, Hamill was in surgery from 9 AM until 4 PM. As a result of the accident, a double was used for the landspeeder pickup shots.

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. As the 1980s wore on, Hamill did little film work outside of Star Wars. Instead, he acted on Broadway, starring in Amadeus, The Elephant Man (for which he received a Drama Desk Award nomination), and other stage plays, for which he received positive reviews.