Mark Hamill

Born: 25 September 1951
Where: California, USA

Mark Hamill made millions of girls' hearts throb as they watched him play Jedi darling Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars series.

Before Episode IV in 1977, he had appeared in TV movies and done voiceovers for cartoons.

He was in a serious car crash soon after Star Wars and much of his face had to be completely reconstructed - hence the gaunt look in The Empire Strikes Back.

Despite his boyish charms, as the trilogy went on Harrison Ford became the bigger star, with storylines transferring to the romance between Ford and Carrie Fisher by the end of Return Of The Jedi.

Hamill went on to star in Corvette Summer and featured in World War II ensemble The Big Red One and The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia, but never became one of Hollywood's greats.

His big-budget Brit sci-fi flick, 1989's Slipstream, never even got an American cinema release.

Hamill now stars in video releases like Black Magic Woman and Wishman and is the voice of the Joker on the animated Batman TV series.