Before Star Wars fame, actor Mark Hamill got into a terrible car accident, fracturing his nose and left cheekbone. The actor was filming 1977’s Star Wars at the time and felt like his career was finished because of the injury. Fortunately, doctors were able to fix his nose while a double was used for his scenes in Star Wars.
For a long time, people didn’t even notice that his nose was out of place until multiple news outlets began spreading rumors that he had his face reconstructed with plastic surgery. The accusations left Hamill baffled as the surgery was necessary due to the accident.
Mark Hamill got into a nasty car accident in the 1970s
In a 1978 interview, actor Mark Hamill revealed that he got into a terrible car accident that completely damaged his face. The actor recalled,
“What happened was that I was on the wrong freeway. I was way out in the sticks somewhere and there were no cars and no traffic, thank God. I was going about 65-70 mph… I was speeding, going too fast… and what happened, I think, was that I tried to negotiate an off-ramp and lost control, tumbled over, and went off the road. I fractured my nose and my cheek.”
The actor further explained that he woke up in the hospital and the moment he saw his face in the mirror, he was sure that his career was finished. Fortunately, his scenes in 1977’s Star Wars were shot using a double while Hamill got his nose fixed.
Mark Hamill was accused of getting his face reconstructed
Due to the horrifying injury, Hamill had to get surgery for his nose and cheekbone. After the release of Star Wars, several media outlets accused Hamill of getting his face reconstructed as the actor explained in a past interview (via StarWarsUpdate),
“The movie came out, nobody noticed, you know, that there was anything wrong and I never really thought about it and over the period of years, it’s built up into having my face reconstructed with plastic surgery.”
Thankfully, the injury didn’t halt Haill’s career, in fact, in the same year, he became one of the most popular actors in the entertainment industry thanks to his work as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars (1977).
