Mark Hamill Mark Hamill ( born in on September 25 , 1951 ) is an actor , best known for his portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the original " Star Wars " trilogy and as in " " . Hamill ' s film career since " Star Wars " has been mostly connected to lower - budget science fiction movies , but he has been successful on , as a voice actor in animation and video games , and as a comic book creator . Biography . Early life . Mark Hamill was born in Oakland , California on September 25 , 1951 . His parents are Virginia Suzanne and William Thomas Hamill . His father was a captain in the U . S . Navy . Hamill has two brothers , Will and Patrick , and four sisters , Terry , Jan , Jeanie , and Kim . He is the 4th of 7 children . As a child , his father ' s career meant numerous relocations , and he attended different schools throughout his childhood . For 10th grade , he attended Annandale High School located in Annandale , Virginia , but eventually ended up graduating from Nile C . Kinnick High School in Japan . He majored in drama at Los Angeles City College . Hamill made his acting debut on " The Bill Cosby Show " ( 1969 ) in 1970 . He played a continuing role ( Kent Murray ) in TV ' s " General Hospital " ( 1963 ) and co - starred in the respected TV comedy series " The Texas Wheelers " ( 1974 ) . Star Wars . Hamill found fame with the hero role of Luke Skywalker in in 1977 . He was originally cast as David on " Eight Is Enough " , and asked to be released from his contract before " Star Wars " came out because he sensed the movie would be successful . Hamill wanted to focus on his movie career . At last his producers agreed to remove him from the series . In January 11 , 1977 , a day before he was set to shoot one of the final scenes needed for the film , Hamill was involved in a car accident that caused minor damage to his face . A double was used for the scene of Luke racing across the desert in his landspeeder while Mark was hospitalized . In an A & E Network Biography special , " Mark Hamill : A Force to Be Reckoned With , " the auto accident and its consequences are recounted by Mark ' s family . As a result of this scarring , Hamill wore an extensive amount of facial makeup when he reprised his role as Luke for " The Star Wars Holiday Special " , which was released in 1978 . A common myth is that the slight damage to Mark ' s face was explained in - universe in by the scene where he is mauled by a Wampa . His son Nathan was born while he was shooting Episode V . Before the film ' s climactic lightsaber duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader , Lucas told Hamill the truth about Vader being Luke ' s father . George Lucas once considered doing a sequel trilogy in which Hamill would reprise the role of an older and wiser Luke Skywalker as an Obi - Wan - like Jedi Master in his sixties training a new era of Jedi Knight s , including the protagonist of the sequels set against the backdrop of the rebuilding of the Republic and the dismantlement of the last remnants of the Empire . It would be filmed around 2011 . Lucas long dismissed this as an off - hand comment , but then on October 30 , 2012 , the talk of a possible sequel , to be released in 2015 , was back in the news when Lucasfilm was sold to Disney . After production officially started on , rumors spread that Disney would hire Hamill and the other stars of the original trilogy to reprise their roles . The rumors were eventually confirmed in 2014 with the first major casting announcement , which confirmed that Mark Hamill would play Luke Skywalker once again . Beyond Star Wars . After the success of " Star Wars " , Hamill found that audiences and movie companies identified him very closely with the role of Luke Skywalker . He worked in a variety of other works such as voice acting ( even before he started live - action performing ) , and in the ' 90s , he acted as Col . Blair in the " Wing Commander " franchise . He attempted to avoid typecasting by appearing in Corvette Summer and the better - known WWII film , The Big Red One . As the 1980s wore on , Hamill did little film work outside of " Star Wars " , though . The actor retreated to the Broadway stage and he starred in Amadeus , The Elephant Man , Harrigan and Hart ( a musical for which he received a Drama Desk Award nomination ) , and other stage plays , for which he received positive reviews . Despite his stints on Broadway , Hamill has had an expansive film career . He played the bad guy ( known as Hawkins ) in the Swedish action movie Hamilton in 1998 . Some of his other film credits include Corvette Summer , The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia , Britannia Hospital , Slipstream , The Guyver ( in which he played a police officer turned into a mutant slug with a man ' s face ) , and the 1995 remake of Village of the Damned . Also , he made an appearance as himself in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back . He narrated the four - part documentary on the influence of science fiction upon present society , The Sci - Fi Files . In 2001 , Hamill starred in the feature film Thank You , Good Night as a pragmatic father alongside Christian Campbell , J . P . Pitoc , and Sally Kirkland . He voiced the character of Chanukah Zombie for the 2007 straight - to - DVD release Futurama : Bender ' s Big Score . In 1995 , he voiced multiple characters in " " , a video game developed and published by LucasArts . Being an avid comic book fan , Hamill also appeared as the super - villain The Trickster twice in the 1990s " The Flash " live - action television series , and later returned to the role in the " Justice League Unlimited " animated series and the 2014 " The Flash " live - action series . The notoriety from this role helped him secure his famous animation voice role as The Joker on " Batman : The Animated Series " , " Justice League " , and the video games " " , " " and " " . He quoted " Star Wars " at least twice in his comic book roles : as Joker , he said " " May the floss be with you " " ; and as Trickster , he said " I am your father " , as a role - reversal line from " The Empire Strikes Back " . Mark Hamill has also provided the voice acting for several animated characters in the past decade , ironically finding himself typecast as a player of villains . The roles include as The Joker on various animated series and video games ; Skeleton King on Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go , Captain Stickybeard in " Codename : Kids Next Door , " Undergrowth on " Danny Phantom " and Hobgoblin on " Spider - Man : The Animated Series " . He does multiple voices for the popular Adult Swim show , most notably being Mr . Salacia , the primary antagonist of the series . Since 2010 , Hamill has been the voice of Skips the yeti in Cartoon Network ' s " Regular Show " . Hamill also guest - starred in the CBS drama series , " Criminal Minds , " playing serial killer John Curtis AKA The Replicator . Hamill also was the voice for Von Ness and Black Phantom in Lego ' s Hero Factory episodes / movies . Hamill is also the co - writer of " The Black Pearl " , a comic book miniseries published by Dark Horse Comics . He also wrote an introduction to the trade paperback " Batman : Riddler & Two - Face " which reprints various stories of the title villains to tie in with the 1995 film " " . Hamill also voiced the character Arnim Zola in the animated movie " Avengers Assemble " and the animated TV series " Spider - Man " . Personal life . On 17 December 1978 , he married dental hygienist Marilou York . They have three children — Nathan ( born June 25 , 1979 ) , Griffin ( born March 4 , 1983 ) , Chelsea ( born July 27 , 1988 ) . They also have one grandchild from Nathan : Autumn Hamill ( b . October 31 , 2016 ) . Star Wars filmography . Hamill played the villain " Cocknocker " and the voice of in the 2001 Kevin Smith film " " ; The film makes multiple references to " Star Wars " , including the title itself , a cameo by Carrie Fisher , and a lightsaber - esque battle between Hamill ' s character and the title characters . Hamill wrote , directed and starred in 2004 ' s " " , which included cameos from Jeremy Bulloch , Jim Cummings , Paul Dini , Tom Kenny , Stan Lee , Peter Mayhew , David Prowse , Kevin Smith , Tara Strong and James Arnold Taylor . Hamill voiced co - star Harrison Ford in the " Robot Chicken " episode " Plastic Buffet , " in which he also voiced himself ; He again voiced Ford in 2017 ( this time as Han Solo ) for the spoof video " " . He performed a number of voices for " " , for which " " supervising director Dave Filoni served as director and writer .