Mark Richard Hamill was born on 25 September 1951, in Oakland, CA. The middle child of William and Suzanne Hamill, he has six siblings: Terry, Jan, Jeanie, William Jr, Kim, and Patrick. His father being a captain in the United States Navy, Mark grew up in a variety of places, including California, Virginia, New York City, and Japan. After he graduated from Yokohama HS in 1969, the Hamills moved back to California, where Mark entered Los Angeles City College as a Theatre Arts major.
Mark's professional acting debut was on the original Bill Cosby Show, in 1971. He played an ongoing role on the soap opera 'General Hospital', and was a co-star in 'The Texas Wheelers', the first comedy show not to use a 'laugh track'. While he did a voice-over in the animated movie 'Wizards', (his character looks like him), his film debut was in 'Star Wars', 1977. He was in a car accident; specific parts of the wampa scene in 'The Empire Strikes Back', 1980, were written to explain the facial changes.
Mark married Marilou York in 1978. They have three children: Nathan, born 25 June 1979; Griffin, born 4 March 1983; Chelsea, born 27 July 1988. Their main residence is in Malibu, California.
After 'Return of the Jedi', 1983, Mark concentrated on theatre, and appeared in several Broadway plays, including 'The Elephant Man', and 'Amadeus'. His most challenging role was the one he originated, that of Tony Hart in 'Harrigan 'n Hart'. He sang and danced in that role, and garnered a Drama Desk nomination for 'Best Actor in a Musical'. He also did several off- Broadway plays.
Returning to film in 1989, Mark has also made several guest appearances on television shows. Two of the most recent are 'Just Shoot Me!' and 'The Simpsons'. Using his talent for disguising his voice, Mark is much in demand as a voice-over actor. It's been said that he could be the next Mel Blanc. Watch 'Little Mermaid', 'Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby', 'Batman: The Animated Series', and 'SpiderMan' to hear how versatile he is!
Mark has done several projects in the computer games field, as well. Most notable is as Colonel Christopher Blair in 'Wing Commander III and IV', and 'Wing Commander:Prophecy'.
'The Black Pearl', a five-part graphic novel Mark co-wrote with Eric Johnson, was released on 18 September 1996. They have adapted it to a screenplay. Mark is currently working on the video game version, scheduled to be released in Fall, 2000.
Mark has done work on the indie film, 'Walking Across Egypt'. At this time, a distributor has not been found. Along with several other films, it was given a 'Crystal Heart' award at the Heartland Film Festival in October 1999. It opened in Milwaukee on 28 January 2000.
