The Mark Hamill Quality That Made Him Kevin Conroy's Ideal Batman Co-Star
There are peanut butter and jelly, Bonnie and Clyde, and Batman and the Joker. These famous pairs go together perfectly. With Batman and the Joker, the pairing is even more profound. Not only do this hero and villain need each other like two sides of a coin, but the actors who have voiced them so often since "Batman: The Animated Series" began in 1992 were also always the perfect match. For decades, Kevin Conroy voiced Batman to Mark Hamill's Joker, and no one did it better.
Conroy died at the age of 66 in November 2022, and it was a huge loss for the fandom. It was a loss for Hamill as well, as he told Empire Magazine (via Screen Rant). Hamill says of playing the Joker without Conroy:
"They would call and say, 'They want you to do the Joker,' and my only question was, 'Is Kevin Batman?' If they said yes, I would say, 'I'm in.' We were like partners. We were like Laurel and Hardy. Without Kevin there, there doesn't seem to be a Batman for me."
Excuse me while I go sob in a corner for a while. The love between these two voice actors came from both sides. In a 2021 video interview with Dan Allan Gaming, Conroy spoke about their work in the 2016 animated film "Batman: The Killing Joke" and his work with Hamill was mentioned. He had such lovely things to say about Hamill and the quality that made the "Star Wars" actor the perfect person to work off of.
'He loves it when another actor is being incredible'
Kevin Conroy praised Mark Hamill's enthusiasm, calling his co-star "generous" and saying that he loves other actors and especially when they're doing well. He mentioned one specific day in the studio where Hamill's childlike joy in what was happening around him made Conroy point it out to everyone. He said:
"I was in the studio with him once, and I suddenly burst out laughing, and Andrea [Romano, casting director, and voice director] said, 'Kevin! Stop it; why are you laughing?' I said, 'Look at Mark!' And he was over across the room, and he was going like this [resting chin on hands], and he was staring at one of the other actors, and he looked like he was about 12. He looked like a 12-year-old kid looking at a candy store, you know? I said, 'Look at Mark! He looks like he's 12!' And because he was delighting in this other person's performance.
Conroy went on to say that he especially loved working with Hamill because he has a wonderful sense of generosity. "Not all actors are generous that way, you know? Some of them are only concerned about themselves and their own performance, but Mark really loves to watch other people work, and he gives me so much to work with, and it's wonderful that he has said I give him an awful lot too," he said. "So we work really well together."
Is there any mental picture more lovely than that, Bat-fans? You can just see it in your head, can't you? It's hard to imagine that we won't hear more from the Conroy/Hamill pairing, but at least we have years of their work together. "Batman: The Killing Joke" is streaming on HBO Max right now.