Mark Hamill is an actor not only talented, but remarkably versatile. While the interpreter broke out under the name of Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars” by George Lucas in 1977, he quickly proved that he was not only able to play heroes with wide -eyed eyes. Hamill’s acting career has included live television, a variety of video game roles and an intimidating amount of vocal work for animation.
We can say that the most fascinating era of his acting career was during the 1990s, when Hamill was able to immerse himself in roles that were not like Luke. In addition to playing the Joker on “Batman: The Animated Series” (an emblematic role that had received an unofficial test in the live action in the series “The Flash” 1990), Hamill appeared in front of the cameras in a certain number of horror films. He played in a feature film to scream Mad George and Steve Wang called “The Guyver”, the short segment of Tobe Hooper for “Body Bags” by John Carpenter and the Carpenter remake of “Village of the Damned”.
In the midst of all this, Hamill also appeared in a small role of cameo in “Sleepwalkers” of 1992, written by Stephen King and directed by Mick Garris. Even if Hamill was a late addition to the film, his presence is welcome; He plays a police officer in an opening scene intended to help establish the methods of murder of the vampires of holders.
Here in 2025, Hamill is one of the stars of no less than two King cinematographic adaptations. He played Albie Krantz in “The Life of Chuck”, and this weekend, he is the mysterious and disturbing major in “The Long Walk”. Although Hamill appears in King’s Work films seems to be a kind of return, it is apparently a news for Hamill that he has ever been in “Sleepwalkers”. When the play was mentioned in Hamill during a recent interview, the actor admits that he has forgotten everything, which speaks volumes about how his work work is extended and prolific.
Hamill appeared in Sleepwalkers both in favor of Garris and because he is a fan of King
To be fair, Hamill Jenkins’s sheriff appears only in the opening scene of “Sleepwalkers”. Since, as well as the vast list of Hamill credits, it is logical that it could have slipped his mind. However, when Hamill recalled the appearance while speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he instantly recalled the circumstances in which he obtained the concert:
“I totally forgot. If I remember correctly, Mick Garris, the director, asked me:” Can I make a small role? “I loved him so much and I thought,” I have to do it to help him. I don’t even know if I am paid, but I totally forgot it.
Despite his forgetting, Hamill is very pleasant in the small role, and his severe presence in the scene lends a lot of weight to the insidious threat posed by the Sleepwalkers during the film. In fact, there is an appreciable similarity between Jenkins’ serious behavior and Hamill’s insensitive stone in “The Long Walk”. Hamill has not only played the role in “Sleepwalkers” only because he was a fan of Garris’s work. He had also already been a long-standing fan of Stephen King, thanks to a memorable experience by seeing the adaptation by Stanley Kubrick of “The Shining” (which King himself does not like). As Hamill remembers:
“I have always been a fan of Stephen King, and if he came out after” The Shining “, because it is one of the first [King] Things that I have ever seen. I remember that I saw him in Westwood, the very first week he opened. I went directly from the theater to a bookstore and returned home to read: ‘What did I just see?“”
In fact, there is also a little mutual admiration company between King and Hamill. King admitted in 2022 to love the remake of “Child’s Play” of 2019, which presented Hamill as the voice of the Killer Ai doll of this film, Chucky.
Sleepwalkers is filled with appearances in Camée
The Tour of Hamill in “Sleepwalkers” is not just a little autonomous Trivia. It turns out that Hamill represents the first of the many cameos of the film. Ironically, all these cameos in addition to Hamill are other directors. There is John Landis, Joe Dante, Clive Barker, Tobe Hooper and Stephen King himself. The last three not only all appear in the same scene, but also in the same time. As Mick Garris said / film in 2017, this photo featuring King, Hooper and Barker quickly met:
“You know, that day that King came to do his cameo with Clive Barker and Tobe Hooper was a kind of incredible day. We are there, I have never met King before in person, and we have our morning breakfast,” King will be there soon! It can only be here for a few hours! “… And then I broke the tooth on my morning granola. When we arrived, we had two hours to shoot the scene.
Although “Sleepwalkers” is not in the upper levels of the King’s Canon on the screen, it is remarkable for several reasons, especially that it is the only film to date that King wrote directly for the screen, rather than entirely or partially adapted from a novel or a short story. Another reason why he deserves to remember is for these appearances by Camée, which are indeed very fun and add a good deal to the atmosphere of the film. While Hamill has now recalled his first collaboration with King, the strength of his performances in “The Life of Chuck” and “The Long Walk” seem to promise that this is a relationship that should (and hope) continue.
