Daniel Radcliffe: Recent News

Mar 29, 2013

Richard Griffiths, Harry Potter Actor, Dies at 65

Mar 11, 2013

Daniel Radcliffe Dances to Nelly in West Hollywood

Feb 23, 2013

Jessica Chastain Makes First Public Appearance with Boyfriend

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Daniel Radcliffe: Snapshot

Name: Daniel Radcliffe
Date of Birth: July 23, 1989
Birth Place: London, England

Of all the J.K. Rowling fans in the world, none should be bigger than Daniel Radcliffe. Playing boy wizard Harry Potter, he's become one of the most recognizable – and richest – young actors of his time.

Radcliffe's five film portrayals of the bespectacled orphan have made him a box office regular since 2001 (the series has tallied a worldwide box office of more than $4.47 billion). Audiences have grown up with Radcliffe, who has recently graduated to non-Potter roles, including dropping his robe for a London (and Broadway) stage revival of Equus.

The Potter star wrapped the mega-successful franchise in 2011, moving on with musical role in Broadway's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

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Daniel Radcliffe: Five Fun Facts

Daniel Radcliffe would rather play cricket for England than be a movie star.
Daniel Radcliffe says he's missed only two days of work in ten years of Harry Potter films – for gastric flu.
Daniel Radcliffe doesn't like to watch himself in roles. When he sees himself, he thinks, "'God you've got a stupid mouth,' anything, just totally negative criticism, basically," he told the AP.
Daniel Radcliffe's best friend on set "is a 41-year-old guy who works in costume and has got two kids," he told The Guardian.
In the Harry Potter films, Daniel Radcliffe was "always getting in trouble for scratching my forehead and knocking the scar off," he told the Newark Star-Ledger.

Daniel Radcliffe: Biography

1999: Daniel Does Copperfield
Acting casts its spell early on Daniel Radcliffe, the son of Alan, a literary agent, and Marcia, a casting director. At 10, he clinches the lead role in a BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, alongside veteran costars Bob Hoskins (left) and Maggie Smith. "My mum sent in a Polaroid of me to the BBC, because I've always wanted to act since I was five," he tells the Press Association in 2000. "My mum and dad never thought it was a very good idea. So I went for about five auditions and then I got the part."
circa 2000: Becoming Harry Potter
Chris Columbus, who's signed on to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (based on author J.K. Rowling's book about a boy wizard named Harry Potter), sees Radcliffe in the Dickens film. "This is what I want," Columbus (right) recalls to the Independent on Sunday in 2007. "This is Harry Potter." Radcliffe is in the bath when he hears he'd been cast. "I just cried – it was so cool," he tells the Ottawa Sun.
2000s: Growing Up Hogwarts
Radcliffe spends the next several years on Potter sets with Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley, and Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger (left). British acting veterans, including Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith and Emma Thompson, portray various Hogwarts professors or stalwarts. "If childhood is being surrounded by people who you love being around and being incredibly happy, then I absolutely have had that," he tells the Hartford Courant.