American champion figure skater, the winner of an Olympic Gold Medal in 1976. From the time she was a kid, skating was her life. Her hard work and dedication paid off, for she won the U.S. titles in 1974, 1975 and 1976. She impressed the skating world as the successor to ice-skating queen Peggy Fleming. Hamill capitalized on her Olympic fame by appearing in television commercials and traveling with the Ice Capades.
Hamill’s father was an executive for the Pitney Bowes company. She grew up with an older brother and sister and was painfully shy as a child. At eight, Hamill was given her first pair of ice skates as a Christmas present. As a figure skater, Hamill gained self-confidence and developed her dedication and discipline to the sport. At 14, she dropped out of school and received private tutoring as she worked on her skating routines and jumps. She moved to Denver, Colorado to follow her skating coach and practiced seven hours a day for six days a week for 11 months.
In the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, a near-sighted Hamill had to squint on camera to see her winning scores on the Olympic scoreboard. She never wore her glasses while skating in competition. She went on to win the Women’s World Title the same year. Her dynamite hairdo was a sensation in the U.S. and she appeared in shampoo commercials. She starred in an ABC television special in November 1976.
Becoming a professional skater she joined the Ice Capades touring the U.S. She soon felt exploited and suffered a bleeding ulcer during her time with the Ice Capades. However, in 1993, she and her second husband, Kenneth Forsythe, bought the Ice Capades in Atlantic.
Hamill met actor and tennis player, Dean Paul Martin, the son of actor and nightclub entertainer, Dean Martin in 1979. The couple married in 1982 and divorced on 6/01/1984 without children. On 12/23/1982, she had $365,000 worth of jewelry stolen from their room at the Pacific Plaza Hotel in San Francisco. In 1987, Hamill married her second husband, Kenneth Forsythe, 48, a sports-medicine doctor. The couple lived in Indian Wells, CA. Hamill gave birth to their daughter, Alexandra after a difficult pregnancy and delivery in 1989. On 8/21/1995, the couple announced their separation after eight years of marriage.
On 12/18/1994, Hamill announced her retirement from pro figure skating and she and Forsythe sold the Ice Capades to International Family Entertainment, Inc. in February 1995.
In early January 2008 she revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and would drop out of her skating tour with “Broadway on Ice” for a few weeks while she received treatment at Johns Hopkins.
Link to Wikipedia biography