It could have been worse: he could have been Mark Hamill...
Full disclosure: I was in the 1968 high school play with Mark Hamill at Nile C. Kinnick, aka Yo-Hi, in Yokohama. I was a freshman, he was a senior, but I played the school principal and he played Henry Aldrich. Mark was the consummate stage actor, and had a powerful presence, which oddly enough didn't seem to translate to film or television; I'm not sure why, because we all could see his dramatic ability.
Star Wars made and killed Hamill’s career. He might’ve been better off staying in the Grant Goodeve role that he originated in “Eight is Enough.” He probably would’ve had steady and solid work after that.
His voice work as The Joker for much of the animated Batman work is outstanding. The stage training carries through in that. He was also very good in The Big Red One. The scene with him finally getting over his jitters at the ovens was good.
That is pretty interesting. I grew up with the Star Wars films, so I just took it all for granted, but I recently saw some behind-the-scenes footage of Hamill training for "Empire" and he was really putting his all into it. He struck me as a very hard worker. I'm sure it was all worth it since he likely never had to work again after "Jedi." His work as the Joker on Batman has always been fantastic, and it was a damn shame he retired from the role.