Mark Hamill

Mark Hamill married dental hygienist Marilou York in a private civil ceremony on December 17, 1978. They have three children, Nathan Elias, Griffin Tobias, and Chelsea Elizabeth. Nathan was born during the production of The Empire Strikes Back, while all three children later had cameo appearances as Resistance soldiers in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Hamill previously had an offscreen relationship with actress Anne Wyndham, who played his sister on General Hospital. He later described the experience of continuing to work with a former partner as difficult and credited it with shaping his decision to marry someone outside the acting profession.

Hamill was born in Oakland, California, and grew up in a military family because his father, William Thomas Hamill, was a United States Navy captain. Frequent changes of station led him to attend schools in Virginia, California, and Japan. He graduated from Nile C. Kinnick High School in Japan in 1969 and later studied drama at Los Angeles City College.

His professional career began with television appearances, including The Bill Cosby Show, The Partridge Family, Cannon, Room 222, and One Day at a Time. He had a recurring role as Kent Murray on General Hospital and starred as Doobie Wheeler in the short-lived sitcom The Texas Wheelers. He also appeared as David in the pilot episode of Eight Is Enough, although Grant Goodeve played the role when the series continued.

Hamill became internationally known after being cast as Luke Skywalker in George Lucas's Star Wars. Released in 1977, the film became an unexpected cultural and commercial phenomenon, and Hamill returned as Luke in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). He also appeared in The Star Wars Holiday Special and reprised the role in radio dramatizations of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.

On January 11, 1977, before filming one of his scenes, Hamill was involved in a car accident that fractured his nose and left cheekbone. A double was used for some landspeeder pickup shots, and Luke's injuries were incorporated into the opening of The Empire Strikes Back. Hamill won the Saturn Award for Best Actor for both of the original trilogy sequels.

Hamill returned as Luke in The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). He also voiced or played brief roles in other Star Wars productions, including Darth Bane in The Clone Wars, Dobbu Scay in The Last Jedi, Boolio in The Rise of Skywalker, and Luke in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. For some cameo roles, he was credited under the names William M. Patrick and Patrick Williams.

Hamill began voicing the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series in 1992. He continued with the character in The New Batman Adventures, Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Static Shock, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. He also voiced the Joker in video games including Batman: Vengeance, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Knight, The Killing Joke, and Lego DC Super-Villains.

His Joker performances were closely associated with his work alongside Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman in several of the same productions. Hamill said in 2023 that he would no longer voice the character following Conroy's death, although his Joker appeared with Conroy's Batman in MultiVersus and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Beyond the Joker, Hamill has voiced the Hobgoblin in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Skips in Regular Show, Captain Stickybeard in Codename: Kids Next Door, and characters in Metalocalypse. His other voice roles include Chucky in the 2019 Child's Play remake, skekTek in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Art Rosenbaum in Invincible, Skeletor in Masters of the Universe: Revelation, and the Granduncle in the English dub of The Boy and the Heron.

After Star Wars, Hamill pursued stage work to broaden his career beyond Luke Skywalker. His Broadway credits include The Elephant Man, Amadeus, Harrigan 'N Hart, Room Service, and The Nerd. He received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Harrigan 'N Hart. He also starred opposite Rue McClanahan and Polly Bergen in productions of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.

His live-action film roles include Kenneth W. Dantley Jr. in Corvette Summer, Private Griff in The Big Red One, Crow in Sushi Girl, James Arnold in Kingsman: The Secret Service, Ted Mitchum in Brigsby Bear, and Master Talus in Knightfall. He played the Trickster in the 1990 television series The Flash and reprised the role in the later CW series. He also appeared in Criminal Minds, Chuck, The Neighbors, and The Fall of the House of Usher.

Hamill directed and starred in the 2004 direct-to-DVD film Comic Book: The Movie, a mockumentary filmed partly at San Diego Comic-Con. The film won the Best Live-Action DVD Premiere Movie award at the 2005 DVD Exclusive Awards. He also co-wrote The Black Pearl, a comic book miniseries published by Dark Horse Comics.

Hamill has been an outspoken supporter of Democratic Party candidates and has publicly criticized Donald Trump. He participated in a campaign for Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election, met Biden at the White House in 2024, and endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. He has also expressed support for Brazilian politician Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and London mayor Sadiq Khan.

In 2022, Hamill became an ambassador for United24, a fundraising platform supporting Ukraine. He lent his Luke Skywalker voice to a Ukrainian air-raid warning application, with alerts ending in the phrase “May the Force be with you.” A 2023 poster raffle associated with his support for Ukraine raised more than $300,000 for reconnaissance drones.

Hamill has expressed support for the transgender community and apologized after liking social-media posts that he later recognized as having transphobic implications.