Sunday, September 25, 2011

If You Want to Feel Really Old ...

... consider the fact that today is Mark Hamill's 60th birthday.

24 comments:

  1. Thyat was touched up that to make him look that horrible...

    ...

    right?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Excuse me, I think I need to sit down in my rocker for a while...

    ReplyDelete
  3. He's still older then me.

    @puresstrainhuman.... nope that's about what he actually looks like not all prettied up,
    http://moviecarpet.com/2011/03/06/mark-hamill-lands-lead-role-in-upcoming-horror-film-airbourne/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks OK for a 60. When Emire Strikes Back came out I was 12 and it was not the center of my universe, but it was an end all be all of Cinema. In retrospect, most op these guys did not have prolific careers outside Star Wars and I too, gut sucked into the vortex of Blade Runners, Hitchers, Willem Dafoes from To Live and Die in LA and Plattoons and Manhunters. Call me a relic, but the original Man On Fire was some much cooler and twisted than the big screen action remakes. Somehow remakes of the 1980's films don't work. The true period dripped style lethal coolness and nihilism of the impending WW3 the way Christopher Walken drips malevalence and ill will. Too brief! Too Brief! As any hitorical glitter in retrospect, I suppose. And why did Star Wars not become a part of all this? It was a fairy tale? Escape from all this? I am not sure, except that nothing was as spectacular as walking into that movie theater late and getting the first glimpse of the Snow Speeders seeking their doom with those Snow Walkers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Time certainly does fly. I remember when happiness was getting my own lightsaber for Christmas.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just look at Carrie Fisher today, if you want to see a Star Wars alumnus to whom time has not, shall we say, been kind.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "If You Want to Feel Really Old... consider the fact that today is Mark Hamill's 60th birthday."

    I will not do any such thing!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Seems like only yesterday I was waiting for the Star Wars Holiday Special. Where has time gone?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've still got the Holiday Special on VHS. Ah, memories.

    ReplyDelete
  10. When 60 years old you reach, look as good you will not! ;)

    Neither will I for that matter...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Joseph said...
    Just look at Carrie Fisher today


    The horror... the horror...

    Joseph said...
    I've still got the Holiday Special on VHS. Ah, memories.


    Fortunately, in time, alzheimers may spare us of those.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Mark's looking pretty good for 60, given all the crap that happened during the late 70s and early 80s. He's taken care of himself, learn what his limitations are and made a damn good life out it as one of the best voice actors in his generation. Most men would kill to look, or feel, that good at his age.

    ReplyDelete
  13. In Hamill's defense, he had some pretty bad facial injuries in a car accident that happened not long after (a year or two?) that first picture was taken. He never really looked the same after that. That said, we all get old, none of us will look as good at 60 as we did at 25.

    ReplyDelete
  14. That said, we all get old, none of us will look as good at 60 as we did at 25.

    Indeed. And, to be totally honest, I rather like the fact that, at 60, Hamill not only looks his age but looks just like a normal guy rather than some kind of unnatural Hollywood creature.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Carrie Fisher also looks fine for her age. I dunno what everyone's freaking out about.

    http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Carrie+Fisher/4th+Annual+Logo+NewNowNext+Awards+2011+Arrivals/ySxP3aPnAIe

    ReplyDelete
  16. How could you...I spent my 12th year of life in love with Princess Leia.

    *Crushes your throat from across the room all Sith-like*

    ReplyDelete
  17. Well she isn't the hottie of 30+ years ago...but that should be expected, I guess! Besides, she has had problems with drugs etc. so that inevitably took a toll. But Mark Hamill looks happy, and that's what important.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Mark's looking pretty good for 60, given all the crap that happened during the late 70s and early 80s. He's taken care of himself, learn what his limitations are and made a damn good life out it as one of the best voice actors in his generation.

    This.

    Hamill is about as vibrant and unguarded an interview subject as they come, and he's a brilliant voice actor - but he was impressive in the Star Wars films too, in subtle ways. It's interesting to go back to Empire Strikes Back and see what an expressive, funny, emotionally varied performance he puts up opposite a puppet in a swamp. Sterling work from an underrated actor.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Yeah, the whole point of the opening bits of Empire were written to explain why his face was screwed up by the car crash. I wonder if Wampas would even exist in the canon if it weren't for that car crash.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I felt old when I was an adviser to a high school youth group. They were getting all excited about the re-release of Star Wars (a New Hope - I always think of it as just "Star Wars" because that was the title when I saw it...).

    They weren't even born when the movie originally came out...

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  21. I distinctly remember wondering how they made his skull damage look so realistic when I saw Empire in the theater. It wasn't until I heard a playground rumor (later confirmed) that he'd been in a terrible car wreck.

    Hamil is an excellent actor. For a guy who was cast as a kid to end up effortlessly carrying Return of the Jedi is pretty impressive.

    He wasn't cast much in later non-Star Wars movies because he was no longer a "face" but was too famous to convert over to a character actor.

    I know it is a newsflash that Hollywood is that shallow.

    I'm so grateful he didn't ruin his skull with a bunch of Jenneresque plastic surgery. A great voice, a memorable face, and, 35 years on, the Force is still with him.

    ReplyDelete
  22. His appearance in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" was sublime.

    ReplyDelete
  23. "When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good, you will not."

    ReplyDelete
  24. I mentioned this to my wife, and she said, "That doesn't sound that old anymore."

    ReplyDelete