He kept his Luke Skywalker boots, from the first "Star Wars" movie. When the movie was re-released to theaters in the late 1990s, his son asked if he could wear the boots to a showing. Hamill said no, telling him he didn't think the boy would "get out alive" if fans knew his boots were the originals.
He was originally cast as David on "Eight Is Enough" (1977), and asked to be released from his contract before Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) came out because he sensed the movie would be successful, and Hamill wanted to focus on his movie career. ABC refused to release him from his contract, thinking that having a successful movie star connected with the show would help "Eight Is Enough" (1977). Hamill was then in a car crash in December 1976 and injured his face. This made him unavailable for shooting the television series, and ABC was forced to recast the role of David, which then went to Grant Goodeve.
In 1995, he appeared in Village of the Damned (1995) for director John Carpenter. That same year, Carpenter released another movie: In the Mouth of Madness (1994). A newspaper boy was played by Hayden Christensen, who went on to play his father (Anakin Skywalker) in the Star Wars prequels.
In addition to playing Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy, he played the part in the NPR radio dramatizations of "Star Wars" (1981) and "The Empire Strikes Back" (1983). However, he was not available to reprise the role for "Return of the Jedi" (1996).
In an ironic counterpoint to his problem of being typecast as a upright hero like "Luke Skywalker" in live-action roles, he has found that his successful career as an animation voice actor has typecast him as a player of flamboyant villains like "The Joker" in the animated "Batman" (1992) series.
Is one of three actors, along with Anthony Daniels and Billy Dee Williams, to reprise their same roles from the original Star Wars trilogy in the NPR radio dramatizations of the trilogy.
Is one quarter Swedish.
Is the 4th of 7 children.
Mark and his "Star Wars" co-star Harrison Ford were both considered for the role of the bumbling wizard "Schmendrick" in the 1982 animated adaptation of The Last Unicorn (1982).
Played the infamous Flash villain, The Trickster aka James Jesse (a word play for old west bandit Jesse James, a popular stunt for "Flash" creator Gardner Fox and other series writers), in both the short lived live action CBS series "The Flash" (1990), in 1991 (two episodes), and in the "Justice League" (2001) animated series in 2005, in the episode "Flash and Substance".
Though in the original Star Wars trilogy he shoots a pistol and swings a lightsaber right-handed, he eats and writes left-handed. He can be seen eating left-handed in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) when in Yoda's home, throwing the skull left-handed to defeat the Rancor in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), and when writing left-handed on a guest appearance on the sitcom "3rd Rock from the Sun" (1996).
Trained with swordmaster Bob Anderson for his role as Luke Skywalker; Anderson also trained David Prowse (Darth Vader).
Worked for free on Britannia Hospital (1982)