Mark Hamill Movies
When Mark Hamill accepted the role of Luke Skywalker in George Lucas' Star Wars trilogy, he had no idea that he was going to become a cultural icon of callow youth, raw courage, and true heroism. Hamill was born the son of a naval captain, one of nine brothers and sisters. Hamill spent much of his youth traveling to different bases in the U.S. and Japan. He was studying drama at Los Angeles City Drama when he landed his first professional acting role as a guest star on the television series The Bill Cosby Show. Between 1972 and 1973, Hamill played Kent Murray on the television soap General Hospital and also did guest appearances on other television shows and in TV movies. In 1974, Hamill co-starred in The Texas Wheelers, a down-home sitcom that only lasted a season. He made his screen debut in Star Wars (1977) and became such a big hit that he had trouble getting other types of roles.Shortly before the release of Star Wars, Hamill was involved in a terrible car crash that resulted in surgeons having to reconstruct his face. Despite the enormity of Hamill's popularity in this film, he was unable to attain a lucrative film career like his co-star, Harrison Ford, perhaps because he too closely identified with Luke in viewers' minds to be seen as anyone else. Instead, Hamill appeared in films such as Corvette Summer (1978), The Big Red One (1980), and The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1980). Hamill tried his luck on and off-Broadway and won excellent reviews for his work, playing the leads in The Elephant Man and Amadeus.
By the 1990s, he had largely been cast in direct-to-video ventures. On television, he provided his voice to at least two animated characters in The Adventures of Batman and Robin. In addition, Hamill starred in several hit CD-ROM games in the Wing Commander series and continues to appear occasionally on television. Finally, Hamill and his cousin, Eric Johnson, co-wrote The Black Pearl comic book series, which Hamill hopes to make into an animated movie. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The Corvette Ken Dantley's (Mark Hamill) class has been restoring in their high-school shop class is nearly completely fixed up. One day, the students walk in and it is gone - apparently stolen. Ken is larking about in Las Vegas when he spies a car that looks suspiciously like the Corvette he knows so well. He begins looking for the car, but in the meantime Vanessa (Annie Potts), propositions him on the street. Intrigued, he follows the girl back to her van, which is equipped with a waterbed. She hopes to use the van as a travelling brothel, with herself as the bill of fare. Instead, she helps him look for the missing car, and as they search, the two of them fall in love. Though praised by critics, Mark Hamill's second starring feature did poorly at the box-office, and stalled his career. Corvette Summer marks the first star appearance by Annie Potts, perhaps better known for her role in the U.S. television show Designing Women. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Hamill, Annie Potts, (more)
- 1978
Wookie sidekick Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) races across the galaxy to spend the holidays with his family in this TV movie, which was broadcast after Star Wars became a pop phenomenon but before the release of The Empire Strikes Back. Sometime after the events of the first film, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca are working a reconnaissance mission while Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), and the others pursue their own missions. Back on Chewie's home planet, preparations are underway for Life Day, the most important holiday in the Wookie calendar. As Chewbacca's family -- wife Malla (Mickey Morton), son Lumpy (Patty Maloney), and father Itchy (Paul Gate) -- anxiously awaits his return, agents of the Empire continue to oppress the people of their planet. Eventually, the Wookie clan is reunited, but not before Bea Arthur, Art Carney, Diahann Carroll, Harvey Korman, and Jefferson Starship appear in various vignettes. Broadcast once and only once -- on November 17, 1978, on CBS -- The Star Wars Holiday Special has never received an official video or DVD release. Despite George Lucas' avowed loathing of the project, however, bootlegs are traded avidly by Star Wars fans eager to see the first appearance of bounty hunter Boba Fett (in an 11-minute animated sequence). ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, (more)
- 1977
Stone (Karl Malden) is appalled by an upsurge in teenage crime, especially because the perpetrators have been able to escape punishment because they're still "children" in the eyes of the law. Bucking against public opinion and political pressure, Stone tries to change the laws so that the teen outlaws will be tried as adults. Mark Hamill, on the verge of celebrity by virtue of Star Wars, is afforded "special guest star" billing in the episode; Carl Weathers, despite his burst of fame as Apollo Creed in Rocky, is merely listed among the featured players. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Discover the technical magic that makes the technology of Star Wars and the workings of the Force seem real. ~ All Movie Guide
In this animated futuristic tale, a pair of twins must fight for domination of what is left of the world, the good man using the powers of magic in an attempt to save the Earth, and the evil twin taking advantage of the horrors of technology that again threaten to destroy everything. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
George Lucas' mythological popcorn movie is a two-hour roller-coaster ride that has passed into movie legend. The story, for the tiny number of people not familiar with it, concerns a farm boy named Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) who discovers that the used robot recently purchased by his family plays back a message from one Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), begging for help from Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke asks his father's friend Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness) about this, and he discovers that Ben and Obi-Wan are one and the same. Kenobi tells Luke of the battle of the rebels against the ruling Empire and the spiritual energy called "The Force." Soon Luke, Kenobi, and a mercenary named Han Solo (Harrison Ford) join forces to rescue Princess Leia from the Empire's mammoth warship, the Death Star, controlled by evil genius Darth Vader (David Prowse, with the voice of James Earl Jones). George Lucas has frequently cited the influence of several films on Star Wars, particularly Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress and Yojimbo and John Ford's The Searchers, as well as the original Flash Gordon serials. After Star Wars became a success, Lucas announced his intention to turn the film into a series, originally totalling nine films (later pared back to six). Consequently, most reissue prints now feature the title Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope, with The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983) serving as Episodes Five and Six in the serial, and Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace (1999) going back to the myth's beginnings. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, (more)
- 1976
Raymond Burr stars again as a lawyer, this time named Arthur Mallory. No Perry Mason he, Mallory has been on the outs since being falsely accused of perjury. Eventually cleared, Mallory lives hand to mouth as a public defender, with a heightened sense of fair play when it comes to the downtrodden. In this pilot film for the never-sold TV series Mallory, the attorney defends a jailed car thief (Mark Hamill) who has been framed for the killing of another prisoner. The original network title for this two-hour TV movie is Mallory: Circumstantial Evidence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
San Francisco's Delancey Street is the locale of a halfway house for ex-convicts, former drug users, and other society castaways. The founder of this operation is himself a paroled convict (Walter McGinn), who hopes to help others get back on their feet as he has. His touchiest assignment is the regeneration of a 56-year-old man who has just spent 36 years in the slammer for murder. This TV movie was the pilot for an unsold series based on the real-life activities of ex-con Joseph Maher, who in his heyday was a favorite subject of several TV newsmagazines. Sadly, the semi-happy ending of Delancey Street was not borne out in real life: Joseph Maher lapsed into alcoholism in the early 1980s, was forced out of his own rehab program, and died in poverty in 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
Fresh from her success in The Exorcist (and several years away from her tenure as queen of the women in prison flicks), Linda Blair stars in this searing TV movie. Sarah (Blair), a normal teenaged girl, begins drinking socially at high school parties. She soon finds that she can't stop--and even worse, she can't keep her boozing a secret. After a near-tragic baby-sitting episode, Sarah decides to attend Alcoholics Anonymous, but soon she's back on the hard stuff. Only when Sarah causes the death of a horse does she strengthen her resolve to remain "clean and sober." Sarah T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic tempers the more sensational aspects of the subject matter with some unforgettably poignant vignettes--including the A.A. testimony of a boy who's even younger than Sarah. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
In this fact-based made-for-TV tearjerker, the promising life of a talented teenage athlete is suddenly destroyed when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Despite the bad news, the boy does all he can to fight the disease. His devoted mother supports him to the bitter, inevitable end. The story is based on the experiences of Doris Lund, the late Eric's mother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1975
The fourth season of Streets of San Francisco finds veteran police detective Mike Stone (Karl Malden) and his youthful (but increasingly experienced) partner Steve Keller (Michael Douglas) still operating out of the SFPD's homicide squad. The focus in this episode, however, is on a pair of romantically involved narcotics agents, George (Clu Gulager and Amy Ninette Bravo). When she is killed by an addict, he goes on a bitter rampage, determined to avenge her death--and seriously hampering Stone and Keller's investigation of the murder in the process. This episode is highligted by a wild car-chase finale, as well as a significant pre-Star Wars appearance by Mark Hamill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Fugitive criminal Dree Foster (Robert Drivas) leads the FBI on a not-so-merry chase beginning in Philadelphia and ending in an as-yet-unkown location in Arizona. Along the way, Foster commits a variety of crimes, charming three impressionable teenage runaways (one of them a pre-Star Wars Mark Hammil) into acting as his accomplices. Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) has no idea what crime Foster is planning--but he does know that the fugitive is heavily armed with guns and grenades! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Required to wear braces on her teeth, Laurie (Susan Dey) is worried that her unsightly dental adornments will turn off her new boyfriend, so she goes to great lengths to hide them. Trouble is, she can't go through life covering her mouth and refusing to talk. And besides, the Partridges have been booked to appear on a TV show hosted by Wink Burgess (Alan Oppenheimer) --who demands that all his guests flash big, toothy smiles! Featured as Laurie's beau Jerry is a young Mark Hamill, six years removed from Star Wars. Song: "The Love Song" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
