Mark Hamill

While most artists strive to hone a single craft and spend their lives inhabiting that one world, actor Mark Hamill navigated a universe that went from feature films to television and voiceovers for video games. Most significantly, Hamill portrayed one of the most identifiable characters in film and pop culture history, Luke Skywalker, the farm boy-turned-Jedi Knight in "Star Wars" (1977), "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Return of the Jedi" (1983). Despite the enormity of the "Star Wars" trilogy and its place in cinema history, Hamill's later film career faltered, only for him to reemerge to breathe life into various animated characters. Because "Star Wars" creator George Lucas spun the films off into comic books, animated series and video games, Hamill was assured work reprising Skywalker for years, long before J.J. Abrams breathed new life into that universe with "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (2015). On the stage, he had a critically praised turn in "The Elephant Man," "Amadeus" and "Harrigan n' Hart." But it was his return to his original love of comic books that saw him voice scores of characters for film, television, and video games, most notably Skywalker and The Joker on "Batman: The Animated Series" (Fox, 1992-95). Though he branched out into multiple mediums, Hamill remained an icon for portraying a single character in arguably the biggest trilogy in cinema history.