After Dinner Speakers: Mark Hamill, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Leslie Thomas

Actor. Born Mark Richard Hamill on September 25, 1951, in Oakland, California. Hamill is known for his portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the original episodes of the sci-fi epic Star Wars. Hamill managed to parley his Star Wars success into roles in the Samuel Fuller WWII film The Big Red One (1978) and The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1981), but after that his film career quickly petered out. Although he received positive reviews for his appearances in the Broadway productions of The Elephant Man (1981) and Amadeus (1983), he is as noted for his disappearance from the Hollywood scene as for his participation in it. During the 1980s and 1990s, Hamill appeared in a string of B-grade films that garnered little or no attention. Recently, he has worked doing voice-overs for animated films including Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), Spider-Man: Sins of the Fathers (1996), and Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders (2000). He has also acted in a series of CD-ROM-based video games. Hamill married Marilou York, a dental hygienist, in 1978. They have three children, Nathan, Griffin and Chelsea.