10 Things You Didn't Know About Mark Hamill
5. He Lived In Japan
There's one aspect to Mark Hamill's demeanour that often goes unnoticed, and it is arguably the reason that Luke appealed to so many people, so fast. This aspect is, that he comes across as the all-American kid. He's a white, blonde-haired, blue-eyed handsome young man, at odds with his traditional and boring surroundings, eager to get out there and discover the world. When we first see him, he's even dressed in innocent white colours. The American kid that's easily digestible for an audience. It may be surprising then to learn that he didn't grow up exclusively in America.
Because his father was a Captain in the US Navy, Hamill had to be shipped around quite a bit in his youth, (a classic actor hang-up). At one point, Hamill was taken to Japan where his father was stationed at Yokosuka Naval Base. Hamill attended and graduated from Nile C. Kinnick High School and unsurprisingly, got into a drama club and acted in a productions while he was there.
He evidently caught the acting bug while he was there, because guess what he went and did when he returned to the States? He enrolled in Los Angeles City College and majored in Drama. The rest, as they say, is history.