It's Mark Hamill's birthday today!!! He's all of 57 years of age. An age I feel, is one appropriate for retrospection.
In that spirit, let us ruminate on a few of the awesome things Mr. Hamill has done over the years.
There was that time he was on "The Flash," as The Flash's coolest villain ever, The Trickster. I remember the night well. I was but a lass then, it was before the days of the internet scoops, and as such, it came as a complete surprise to me to see Mark Hamill in my brand new episode of "The Flash." It was indeed glorious and it would go on to spawn a rather intense love for the character that persists to this day. (Curse you D. C for killing my beloved James Jesse!!!)
There was also the time that Mark reprised his role of The Trickster for the super awesome "Justice League Unlimited." This time I knew it was coming, but that knowledge did nothing to dampen my squealing, girlish excitement. Best Flash centric episode ever!!
Yeah, that's right, you heard me. BEST. EVER! I love me some Rogues!
Oh yeah there was also the time he was The Hobgoblin in "Spiderman: The Animated Series." And he is such an incredibly talented voice actor, that I couldn't tell at all. Years later, I would come to realize that my favorite Spidey villain was in fact voiced by my favorite voice actor. It was cool.
Speaking of cool voice acting, Mark Hamill also happened to voice one of the coolest, most bad ass characters of all time, when he took the reins as The Clown Prince of Crime himself, The Joker, in "Batman: The Animated Series." I adored The Joker from the moment I saw this show, and my undying, fanatical devotion has never wavered since. And at the time I had no idea that my boy Mark was the man behind the laughter. Neat right?
The man is a ridiculously awesome voice actor of the old school tradition. You know, the kind that actually use different, original voices instead of just using their regular speaking voices? Yeah, you know, real voice actors. Seriously, if the man doesn't want you to know it's him doing the voice, you ain't gonna know.
I mean check out his Solomon Grundy. Where the hell did that come from? Pretty sweet right?
I know, I know, it's incredible. Believe me, I know.
If you can't tell, I'm a huge fan of animation. I love the medium, I think you can do fantastic things that just aren't feasible with other mediums. And I have a deep and abiding respect for the men and women of the voice acting community. They are some of the most skilled actors out there today. Kudos to you ladies and gents!
However, that does not mean I am blind to the wonders of live action film either. And in that medium Mark has done some pretty badass stuff too.
Take, for instance, "The Big Red One." Sam Fuller's semi autobiographical war epic, that is in fact unbelievably awesome, and sad and horrific. But it is a great flick that was unfortunatly, maimed horribly by the studio at the time of it's release, leaving it a shade of it's former glory.
Thankfully, for you and me, years later, Mr. Fuller's original vision was put back together in the form of "The Big Red One: The Reconstruction." It is actually one of my favorite war movies, and strangely, contains one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen in a war movie (the bit inside the tank, watch it, you'll see) and one of the saddest (the little boy in Marvin's arms). It is filled with incredible moments from start to finish, not least of which are the parts in the ovens, and the bangalore pipe. I don't think I took a breath during either scene. Oh yeah, and Mark Hamill is in it. He's Griff. And he does a ridiculously awesome job.
Oh yeah, he was also in a little movie called "Star Wars." Played the part of Luke Skywalker. You know, the ridiculously good looking, absolutely badass ace fighter pilot and Jedi extradonaire? Yeah, you know, THE HERO!! Yeah, that was Mark.
The man inspired an entire generation of children to aspire to be no less than full fledged Jedi Knights upon reaching adulthood. Good for him!
I advise all of you to spend the night with your favorite Mark Hamill movie, cartoon, or if you're very lucky, Mark Hamill. (Mrs. Hamill, that one's for you)
I myself am about to watch that "Freakazoid!" episode where Mark makes a cameo as.....HIMSELF!!! It's his greatest role. Then I will spend the rest of the night watching "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm," and all the old episodes of "B:TAS."
For old times sake.
Then, time permitting, I will watch all three "Star Wars," movies, in order, all the while grinning like a complete idiot.
See what you do to me Mark?!
Oh also, speaking of Mark doing a cameo of himself, you should totally find and watch "The Simpsons," episode entitled, "Mayored to the Mob." It has a particularly awesome cameo by Mr. Hamill, proving that some celebrities do in fact have a sense of humor. Also, you get to hear his super, impressive rendition of the theme from, "The Bodyguard."
Whitney Houston, eat your heart out!
Happy Birthday Mark, and here's to many more!
P.S-I could go on and on about all the reason why Mark Hamill is awesome, but I will leave you with these two comments on Mr. Hamill's exquisite taste in music.
Mark Hamill loves The Beatles and even has a totally bitching Beatles memorabilia collection. A man after my own heart!
And, what's more, he love Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf." Again, could that man get any more awesome? I don't know, but with the impending release of the film version of "The Black Pearl," I'm sure we'll all get to see all new, never before imagined levels of awesome!
Happy Birthday Mark!!!
