Today “marks” Hamill’s 58th birthday! People are most familiar with Hamill’s star-making role as Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy, which I still remember seeing in the theaters when it was originally released. But Hamill has had a long and distinguished career, including television, movie and voice roles.
Amongst comic fans, he is now best known for his absolutely amazing voice work as the Joker in the various animated Batman television shows, namely Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1994) and The New Batman Adventures (1997-1999). He does such an amazing job voicing the Joker that it is hard to imagine anyone else ever taking the role! His talents are an essential part of the recently-released videogame Batman: Arkham Asylum, which is one of the best videogames I’ve ever played. (Last night I started to play through the entire game a third time, which I’ve never done with any game before.) Another voice role of Hamill’s that made quite an impression on me is his role as the evil Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender, which I’ve noted previously is one of the best television shows I’ve ever seen.
Happy birthday and best wishes for a continuing successful career to Mark Hamill!
Until I listened to the cast commentary — yes, I listened to the commentary tracks on the AvatarDVDs — I would not have been able to tell you that Fire Lord Ozai and Luke Skywalker were played by the same person.
(When I finally saw the English dub of Cowboy Bebop, though, I did have quite a few “Hey, it’s that voice!” moments. “Hey, it’s Nanao AI from Ghost in the Shell! And that random homeless guy — that’s Chief Aramaki! And Spike’s ex-girlfriend is Motoko Kusanagi!” Small world.)
Blake: I only figured out the connection when I watched the credits after the series finale. Hamill definitely has a versatile voice: I typically immediately can recognize well-known voice actors, and I had no clue in his case.