[johan_larson]

I suspect he has simply bowed to the inevitable. Leonard Nimoy did something similar with the character of Spock; he wrote an early autobiography titled "I Am Not Spock" and a later one titled "I Am Spock". You just can't fight the tide. (Unless you're Dutch. Which he isn't.)

A whole lot of actors would envy Mark Hamill's career as an actor, particularly now that he is making bank off the Star Wars sequels.

[gwbas1c]

I think the perspective is different when one's typecast prevents work; verses enables work. I think we also forget that for the longest time, Star Wars was just another hit movie and Star Trek was just another popular show. When they ended, the actors needed to move on to other jobs to pay their bills.

[simonh]

Right, people forget there were 10 lean years between the end of the TV series and The Motion Picture. For the original cast of SW it was a whole career before the Disney movies came along, but to be fair to Mark he's been a stalwart of the fan conventions for many years.

[Gargoyle]

I bet Nimoy would never have been the voice of In Search Of... without having been Spock.

[soundwave106]

His very prolific voice acting career probably helps as well; although he has a "best known as" type role in that field as well (the Joker), there's enough variety in his resume that I think it would be difficult to typecast him too narrowly now.

[dspillett]

> Leonard Nimoy did something similar

Also Tom Baker, for a short while, wrt Doctor Who.

Patrick Troughton had some issues as well though IIRC that was more the long filming schedule and fan attention outside of that while he was in the role (he found being in character that much mentally tiring) rather than typecasting (he left the role in part due to fear of that possibility, but I don't think it actuall was an issue for him in the end).

It seems to be quite common for actors to have a "dark thoughts" spot about their time in pivotal and/or long-running roles, though for a variety of different reasons, which tends to mellow or pass completely as their life and career moves further on.

[scandox]

Tom Baker is just an extraordinary person: http://cuttingsarchive.org/images/9/9e/1978-03-19_Sunday_Tim...