Mark Hamill on "Eight Is Enough"
BillySinclair
of the Bradford family on the pilot/premiere episode of "Eight Is
Enough" in 1977. The same year he made "Star Wars." He had been acting
on tv & movies since he was a child, and this doesn't qualify him as a
"teen idol," but I'm going to post a page of pics of him in this
pre-RalphMacchio episode anyway in ABPT-I.
med...@ibm.net
Mark signed a contract to play the oldest son, then Star Wars
hit big and he wanted out of the TV contract. The producers
of the show wouldn't let him out of the contract. His
solution was to drive his BMW off a freeway overpass. I
know he was depressed about being locked into the contract.
It was never mentioned in the articles I read whether he was
trying to commit suicide, driving too fast and lost control,
or not thinking clearly and lost control. He ended up in the
hospital and needed some reconstructive surgery on his face.
The had to find someone new to play the role on Eight is
Enough, or delay shooting. The surgery was mostly successful,
but you can tell a difference between the way his nose looks
in the first movie and how it looked in Empire Strikes Back.
DP
*** Spam guard on, remove q to reply with email.
BillySinclair
episode, I knew it was Mark Hamill but most of the time I couldn't
recognize him exactly, it was very odd. This sounds strange but I think
the accident improved his looks. Before, he was handsome but sort of
ordinary looking: in Star Wars and after (even now) he is distinctive
and immediately recognizable (he recently played himself on "Just Shoot
Me").
Karinna
BillySinclair wrote in message <36C03E...@banet.net>...
>This sounds strange but I think
>the accident improved his looks. Before, he was handsome but sort of
>ordinary looking: in Star Wars and after (even now) he is distinctive
>and immediately recognizable
I completely agree!! When I first saw the Star Wars trilogy I thought he
looked cuter in The Empire Strikes Back than in Star Wars.
Karinna